The Shelflands Saga
by Deadborder
Summary: Set in an alternate Zoids universe, where while some concepts are the same, many other things are different. A small group of Zoid pilots inadvertantly stumble across something far bigger then they could imagine. Updated with a new introduction.
1. The History of the Shelflands

**The Shelflands: A Brief History**

**Ancient Past**

There is very little known about Zi's ancient past. Most of what modern historians know is pieced together from fragmentary records, a few ruins and some spectacular artifacts. A few facts about the planets ancient past have been reconstructed, however.

At one stage, the planet is believed to have been inhabited by a humanoid race known as the Zoidaryans. Very little is known about them or their civilization. They died out millennia ago, leaving behind very little evidence of their existence. Partial remains and some records indicate that they were humanoid, standing about 1.7-2 meters tall and of similar appearance to modern humans. Beyond that, there is nothing solid known.

At some stage, a different race rose to power. Known as the Starriors, they may have been created by the Zoidarians in their image. The Starriors were a race of humanoid androids, also known as Mindriders. Resembling humans clad in something resembling modern Zoid pilot equipment, they were coloured entirely golden, even down to their featureless eyes.

The Starrior civilization flourished for centuries, making great achievements in science and technology. The few Starrior artifacts found intact suggest a level of technology far exceeding anything known to mankind. The Starriors are possibly best known for their battlesuits, massive humanoid war machines (Although many other configurations of Starrior weapons existed) standing some ten meters tall. Starrior battle suits appear to share some technologies with Zoids, suggesting a common origin.

Two other races arose during the Starrior period. The first were the Zoids, early ancestral forms of machines that we recognize today. The first wild Zoids, essentially animal like creatures, appeared during this period. The Starriors then developed these creatures, creating some of the earliest forms of Zoid found on the planet. The Garius and others like it date from this period, believed to have been controlled by the Starrior Mindriders.

The second race were actually an offshoot of the Starriors themselves. Known as the Z-Knights, there is very little evidence of their existence today. Believed to be a very warlike culture, they created their own battlesuits that far exceeded the Starriors' own ones in capabilities.

Then, abruptly, the Starriors and the Z-Knights both vanished. There is some evidence to suggest that the two races clashed, possibly wiping each other out in some devastating conflict. At any stage, the Starriors and Z-Knights vanished from the planet, leaving behind only a handful of ruins and the Zoids.

It is known that Zi's climate altered at some stage, becoming much hotter and drier. Whether this was the result of a war, a natural process or even if it is linked to the extinction of these races is unknown. Whatever happened, the planet Zi was left to its new rulers, the Zoids. The planet would be theirs for millennia to come.

**Colonisation and Conflict**

Millennia after the extinction of the Starriors, a new life form arrived on Zi. The planet had been selected for colonization by Earth. More to the point, it had been selected as a very particular type of colony. The bulk of the colonists headed for Zi were selected for the program as a way for the Earth government to weed out 'undesirable' elements of their society. While they did include a number of intellectuals, political advocates, social engineers and free thinkers, the bulk of the colonists were criminals.

As per the standard model for colonization vessels at the time, the ships that bought mankind to Zi was a single use, one-way vehicle. The bulk of the ships were made up of descent modules, designed to transport people and cargo on a one-way trip to the planet's surface, and then be disassembled. The skeleton of the ship would then remain in orbit to be reconstructed for future use once the colony had achieved spaceflight, or disassembled for materials.

The majority of the modules landed on the Shelflands Continent, spread out across the length and breadth of the continent. A few more would land on Zi's eastern continent, but contact with these were lost, their eventual fates unknown. As per the plan, the colonists disassembled their modules and used them to begin building their new society.

Over time the colonies grew across the planet. Despite a few squabbles, the colonies were mostly peaceful, a surprise given the origins of much of the population. For a while it seemed like the Zi colony would grow peacefully. But a chance discovery changed all that.

The Colonists had discovered the Zoids not too long after arrival. At first mistaking them for organic animals, they were surprised to discover that they were, in fact, mechanical life forms. Early attempts to capture wild Zoids for use proved to be unsuccessful until, by chance, an exploration team found a Starrior ruin, complete with several functional Zoids within. The technology from this ruin allowed the humans to learn to capture and tame wild Zoids, as well as develop their own. Within a few years, the Zoid population had exploded as the human colonies equipped themselves with the new machines.

While originally intending to use the machines for construction and development of the colonies, many discovered that the creatures could also be armed and used as devastating weapons of warfare. Soon, groups of warlords rose up, intent on ruling their neighbors. The small squabbles grew as armed groups of men and Zoids began to clash.

One warlord had his own plan, however. A warlord named Darin Hinkle successfully seized control of several of the larger groups. Renaming himself Kor Khan, he raised an army bent on the conquest of the colony. Kor's forces swept across the planet in a merciless wave of conquest, destroying all those who would not submit to him. His stance was simple; join us or be destroyed.

There were few who could stand against him. For a while, it appeared that Kor would crush the whole planet under his iron heel, or destroy it trying.

**The First Zoid War**

Frost Dale had been another city that had been crushed by Kor's forces. Like so many others, he made an example of it by slaughtering every member of its populace. One of them, however, escaped, being Melissa Fyre, daughter of the town's leader.

Four years passed, during which time Kor's forces marched on, continuing their conquests. He had finally reached the gates of Metropolis, the largest city in the Shelflands. Metropolis had strong walls and some remaining advanced Earth Technology, but Kor's forces boasted sheer numbers. His forces settled in for a long siege, knowing that the victory was inevitable.

One night changed all that.

Melissa Fyre attacked Kor's camp on her own, piloting a Mad Thunder, believed to be the first of its kind discovered. In one night, her Zoid destroyed a sizable chunk of Kor's army, literally crushing it under her Zoid's iron feet. Kor's forces retreated in disarray, their leaders killed and the troops confused by the sudden appearance of this terrifying and seemingly unstoppable machine.

The people of Metropolis rallied behind Melissa, giving her their support. They, like so many others, had been looking for a symbol that Kor's forces could be stopped and that there may be another choice other then his rule. Soon, Melissa had raised an army of her own, and was ready to take the fight to Kor's forces.

Melissa's troops swept across Kor's territory, lead by her seemingly invincible Mad Thunder, liberating towns and cities as they went. However, Kor was able to rally his armies, and soon launched his own offensive against Fyre's troops. Soon the clashes escalated, growing into a full scale conflict, the First Zoid War.

The conflict grew as the two forces fought for control of the Shelflands. What began as skirmishes between small groups of Zoid-armed forces escalated into mass battles between armies of Zoids. First Kor, and the Fyre, began to use weapons of mass destruction, based on designs taken from surviving Earth technology. Large areas of the Shelflands were devastated, creating such regions as today's wastelands. For a while, it seemed like there would be no winner to the conflict.

Eventually, Fyre's forces were able to gain enough strength to bring down Kor once and for all. Fyre and Kor would face each other in one last, epic battle that would end the conflict forever. Once the dust settled, Melissa Fyre was left in control of half the Shelflands.

**Rise of the Empire**

Having finally ended the threat of Kor Khan, Melissa Fyre set about rebuilding the Shelflands. By the end of the campaign, the most of the eastern half of the continent was behind her, having pledged their allegiance to their savior and liberator. The rest of the continent was a mess of small, independent city states that had remained untouched by both Fyre and Kahn's forces.

A new government rose up out of the newly unified territories, with Melissa Fyre at its head. The new government went through several evolutions, before ending up as a united empire lead by a single figure with supreme power. While initially appearing despotic and not too much better then Kor's alternative, the choice was made to ensure stability. Additionally, a system of checks and balances within the ruling structure was established to prevent the newly crowned Empress from becoming a true tyrant.

Under the reign of Melissa and her decedents, the Empire grew and prospered, while remaining peaceful and stable. Other nations grew up around the Empire, but none had the strength or power to challenge the Empire. While they occasionally waged small wars amongst themselves, the Empire itself remained largely free of conflict.

After nearly two centuries, the Empire had grown to cover more then half of the Shelflands; the Eastern half being entirely ruled by the empire, while a thumb extended across the wastelands into the western half of the continent. The Western Empire eventually came into contact with the other nations of the Shelflands. Several clashes resulted from nations seeking to defend themselves form the perceived threat of Imperial expansion, but no force had the strength to stand against the empire. Eventually, the other nations withdrew to their own borders, realizing that the Empire was here to stay.

**Cultural Change**

In the centuries following the Zoid War, the Shelflands population grew and expanded across the continent. In doing so, they changed. They no longer saw themselves as colonists come from another world, but rather natives of this planet. As time went on, knowledge of earth and its history faded, becoming the stuff of myths and legends.

While the initial colonists had been equipped with an array of advanced Earth Technologies, the knowledge to build and use much of this technology was lost during the wars. As time wore on,, most advanced technology was lost, replaced with indigenously developed systems or more primitive systems.

As populations from earth expanded and intermixed, old cultural and ethnic groups blended and combined, forming into the new nations of the Shelflands. New nationalities arose, each with their own unique national characters like those on earth. As the people of the Shelflands adapted to their new environments, they changed to become further removed from their ancestors.

The most extreme example of this was the Meridian people. Descendants of a group of scientists and researchers who wanted to completely escape the old ways and create a new culture, they underwent radical genetic reconstruction to adapt themselves for aquatic life. These genes were passed on to their descendants, allowing them to create a completely aquatic civilization off the western coast of the Shelflands. Isolationist to the point of Xenophobia, the Meridians all but vanished below the waters for centuries.

Another interesting change was the discovery of humanity's growing mental powers. Some individuals began to develop an affinity for Zoids that grew beyond the normal connection between pilot and machine, with the pilots able to somehow mentally communicate with Zoids. This group would eventually evolve into the 'Darth' movement of today.

**Independence**

After nearly two centuries of growth and stability, things were beginning to change within the Drakken Empire. There had been a growing movement for change within the empire and dissatisfaction with the current regime. Many of them stemmed from opposition to what was seen as a totalitarian government and a growing desire for true democracy.

At the same time, many of the Empire's western colonies and territories were agitating for independence. Far removed form the ancient heartland of the empire, the citizens of the newer colonies didn't have the same attachment to the Empire as their forebears. Over time, the voices for change and independence became louder and louder, and some grew to fear for the empire's safety.

The Draken Emperor reacted to the situation in a completely unexpected manner. He granted independence to the western portion of the empire, separating them from the empire and allowing them to form their own nation. The newly independent colonies wasted no time in setting up a freely-elected democratic government, which in turn attracted many of the reformers form the empire into the new nation.

It was an ingenious solution; not only did it allow the Drakken Empire to dispose of potential problems and possibly even avert a civil war, but it also created a buffer of sorts between them and the other nations of the Shelflands. By withdrawing their forces back beyond the wastelands, the Empire effectively cut the new nation off from their support.

On the first day of 3903 (Stellar Standard Calendar) The United Zoid States came into being. Almost immediately, it was attacked on all fronts by its neighbors. The determined new nation fought back, desperate to preserve its newly-won independence. To many it seemed like the UZS would die not too long after its birth. They couldn't have been more wrong.

**The United Zoid Nations**

In 3908, the aquatic nation of Meridia emerged from its isolation and declared war on both the UZN and the neighboring Raycliffe Confederacy. The Meridian forces attacked both nations, aiming to seize their coastlines while both were distracted with fighting each other. Realizing the new threat, the two nations formed an alliance against the Meridian threat.

Putting aside their hostilities and coordinating their actions, the UZS and Raycliffe Confederacy fought back against the Meridian invasion. The two combined forces smashed the Meridian army, driving their forces back into the ocean. Several punitive raids were launched against the Meridian homelands, but were largely repulsed.

Realizing the benefits to further cooperation and mutual protection, the two countries formed a mutual protection, economic and technology sharing alliance, dubbed the United Zoid Nations. The UZN was formally born in 3909, but most historians date it's founding to the Meridian War.

In the meantime, Meridia was suffering a period of great economic and social strife following their unsuccessful invasion and discovery by the outside world. The government that had launched the invasion had collapsed, leaving the nation in chaos. The interim government reluctantly appealed to their former enemies for aid. To their surprise, the UZN not only offered aid, but also offered them a place in the new alliance. Meridia become the third member of the UZN, formally joining in 3910.

Despite the new alliance, the wars and raids into the UZS continued for a number of years. Daatoon, an alliance of tribal groups was particularly aggressive, aiming to capture more of the UZS and later Raycliffe territory. However, as the growing military strength of the UZN began to see more defeats for the Daatoon forces, they began to reconsider their relationship with their neighbors. The UZN invited Daantoon to join in 3919; they accepted almost immediately.

As the UZN continued to grow in power, other nations requested to join the alliance. Beginning with Glade in 3922, other nations joined the UZN. The Western Wastes, a loose tribal coalition joined in 3930, largely to gain protection form the encroaching Drakken Empire.Thios was followed by the mercantile nation of Zespoia in 2934, the industrial nation of Chronos in 3936, and finally the military state of Pendros in 3941. Very soon, the UZN stood as a military, economic and technological power comparable to the Draken empire. Many thought that a war between the two superpowers was inevitable, with only the barren expanses of the Wastelands standing between them and conflict.

**The Technology Wars**

By 3972, the UZN had reached rough parity with the Draken empire in post regards. Many within the UZN still regarded the Empire as a threat to their future and hard-won freedoms, however. Hawks within the UZN assembly began calling for war with the Empire, as a way to 'protect themselves form the inevitable'. However, the UZN military command realized that such a war would at best end in a bloody stalemate, and at worst would end with the UZN being crushed by the Imperial Forces.

Searching for a way to defeat the Empire, the UZN believed that they had found one just beyond their border. The high tech enclave of Acroinia had remained secluded from the outside world for centuries, but stories had leaked out aobut its people. They were known to be the masters of ancient and arcane technologies, far beyond any found elsewhere in the Shelflands. It was believed that the Acronians possessed lost Earth Technology, Starrior weapons and other such fantastic devices. Soon, voices within the UZN command saw the Acronians as their key to victory.

Figuring that the reclusive, almost secretive Acronians would be unwilling to enter into a military alliance, the UZN tried a different approach. They contacted the Acronians, and demanded that they hand over all their advanced weapons to the UZN in the interests of promoting peace and stability in the region. The Acronians refused to, and as a result the UZN declared war to seize the weapons they sought.

The UZN's forces immediately met with incredibly stiff resistance from the Acronian defense forces. Facing mainly automated defensive systems of incredible destructive capabilities, the UZN forces became bogged down in a long and bloody stalemate that would last another eight years.

After years of attrition, the UZN forces were able to break through the Acronian lines. Heading for their capital, they reached the Acronian last line of defense, the Shelf Ridge. A lone Zoid stepped up to challenge the approaching UZN forces, launching a single weapon, the so-called Darius Missile. In an instant, over 70 of the UZN forces were annihilated. The remaining troops, unwilling or unable to face any more technological terrors that the Acronians may unleash, broke and fled.

The UZN, after witnessing what had happened, immediately contacted the Acronians, signaling their immediate surrender. They realized that they could not hope to fight against such weapons that could destroy their nation in minutes. The UZN prepared for the worst, fearing Acronian domination.

Instead, the Acronians joined the UZN. They themselves were horrified at the destruction they had wrought and wished to atone for their perceived crimes. The Acronians would become full members of the UZN, but their weapons would remain sealed away forever.

Ironically, the Acronain representative Card afterwards stated "We would joined them if they had but asked."

**The Present Day**

While the Acronians didn't yield the "ultimate weapons" that the UZN had hoped for, they still provided many benefits to the UZN. Access to lower-level Acronain technology allowed for numerous scientific and technological breakthroughs, greatly improved the standard of living across the UZN.

Another benefit was the Acronians gave the UZN far greater access to space through their extensive launch and research facilities. Soon after the Acronians joined the UZN, the UZN Space Command was formed to make the UZN a true power in space. A fleet of attack ships was constructed to protect the UZN from any space-borne threat or weapons platforms the Empire might deploy, while construction of a moonbase enabled further exploration of the Zi system.

As the years passed, the nations of the UZN found themselves growing closer and closer together. The nature of the UZN changed over time from an alliance to a true government as its nations created a common currency, a central military command and a dedicated army that served the Alliance as a whole, rather then any one individual state.

Despite this, the threat of war still loomed large on the horizon. Many within the UZN began to see it as their destiny that all nations on the Shelflands would be united under the UZN's banner. At the same time, others remained wary of the Draken Empire and its power. Both sides would engage in numerous small clashes and skirmishes with each other and various neutral nations, but a true full-scale war would never emerge.

One unpleasant side effect of this was the rise of the Wastelands into a form of prominence. Acting as a buffer between the two superpowers, it became the site of numerous clashes between them. Many 'undesirable' elements from both countries filtered into the wastelands, taking advantage of the chaos to raid and pillage independent communities. Soon, it became something of a free fire Zone where raiders, mercenaries, terrorists, wanderers and the two great powers clashed.

The dawn of the 42nd century saw a marked rise in tensions between the UZN and Draken Empire. A Draken army base in the wastelands was attacked and wiped out by an unknown force, while a dangerous criminal escaped one of the UZN's most secure facilities with outside aid. The UZN's most respected mediator, a representative of the Acronian government, vanished in the wastelands on a diplomatic mission.

The planet seemed blanaced on a knife-edge, about to tip into total war; one in which the Wastelands would be the center of the conflict.


	2. Authour's Notes:Wandering Desert Loonies

Authour's Notes:

This story was originally written for the Shelflands Fiction Group, a spin-off of the Zoidfans newsgroup. The creators of the Shelflands group formed their own world based around the Zoids models they had collected for over a decade, rather then the anime which was, at the time, new to them. As such, while many concepts are similar, most of the names, places and ideas are different to what you would expect.

This story was originally created for the Shelflands group. Written as a one-off, it grew to eventually reach rather epic proportions. The version presented here is a somewhat edited and re-written version, changing a few things in earlier chapters that didn't fit with ideas established later on, or to correct mistakes that had crept in during the initial drafts.

More information on the Shelflands setting, as well as the original versions of this story and many others can be found at the Shelflands Group page ).

Thank you

Rick R.

-----

A random patch of desert

1200 hrs

"Zunder, Zunder Zunder... like a little baby Brachios you are... are you the one? No..." The blonde woman stared into the scope of her Gunsniper's long-range cannon, surveying the lumbering Zunder in her sight, then zoomed back to show a larger group of Zoids. "Hmmm... Maybe the Zatton. Maybe he likes bashing his head into the wall..." She zoomed in again, this time on the smaller Zatton, her tongue licking her lips, catching a drop of sweat that was running down from her forehead. Even though the Gunsniper's cockpit was sealed and air conditioned, the heat of the desert sun and the heavy cammo cover draped over it made it more hot than it would normally be.

Her radio crackled to life, a woman's voice hissing over it, trying to stay quiet. "Just pick a target and shoot already. They'll discover us if we wait too long."

A second voice, this one a man's butted in. "Relax, Sandra. You know Vic. She'll do what she needs to when she wants to."

There was a minute of silence, then the blonde woman spoke. "Hey Sandra. Pick a number between one and five."

"Uh... two." The woman replied.

"Bang"

-----

A kilometre away, the Zatton's side suddenly exploded, the small Zoid bucking then keeling over onto its side. The other four Zoids; a Zunder, a Spineback and a pair of Slimes, stopped dead in their tracks, all turning to look at their downed colleague.

-----

"See, I told you?" Rick's irritatingly smug voice came over Sandra's commlink.

"Right. Whatever. C'mon, let's get it over with before the stupid tools realise what's going on." Narrowing her single eye and glaring out at her limited view of her opponents, she pushed the throttle on her Shield Liger all the way open. "Go!"

Two Zoids shook off their camouflage nets, sending them flying in a clout of sand. The newly revealed Shield Liger and Command Wolf AC stood out against the desert, their blue and black colour schemes contrasting with the barren sand around them. The two Zoids sprinted across the desert, rapidly closing on their opponents. The enemy Zoids suddenly turned to face this new threat, their fallen comrade momentarily forgotten.

"Okay Rick, here's the plan. You take one of the Slimes and-"

There was another explosion. The Zunder reared up and keeled over onto its back.

"Oh never mind."

"I like that plan." He replied. He opened up the throttle on his Command Wolf and fired the top mounted twin beam cannon. The two blasts shot across the desert, hitting one of the Slimes - the one I was targeting, Sandra mentally added. "You big tool." She added, before locking onto the other one. Only a little closer.

The Slime turned towards her, a pair of large cannons deploying from its sides. The small Zoid rocked as the cannons fired, the shells sailing across the desert at her Liger. A pair of explosions momentarily obscured its head. Any sense of victory the Slime's pilot may have had quickly evaporated along with the smoke, as the Liger continued to charge, it's shield undamaged by the attack.

The second Slime, damaged by Rick's first attack was now trying to turn away from the battle, its side cannon ruined. A second pair of shots struck the damaged cannon, triggering a series of explosions that rocked the small Zoid. Oddly enough, it stayed upright, smoke belching out form its shell.

The Spineback, seemingly possessed of the most sense of the three, had decided to break rather than standing and fighting. Finding no natural cover, it tried the next best thing. Ducking behind the upended Zunder, it opened fire at Rick with its small cannon mounted on the front of the sail.

Another pair of shells impacting into the shield focused Sandra's attention back onto the Slime. New plan, she thought. The Liger charged forward, keeping the shield up before leaping straight at the Slime. The pilot desperately tried to turn away, but only ended up presenting its side to the Sheild Liger's charge. The smaller Zoid simply fell over onto its side under the Liger's weight, one of its cannons crushed under its weight. Wasting no time, Sandra fired her tail-mounted guns, rocking the Slime's body with hits. After a few bursts, it stopped moving.

Rick's Wolf leapt away from the Spineback, its shots going wide. "He's got some pretty good cover there!" he called out. "You go one way, I'll go the other."

"Right, I'll cut him-"Sandra began, however before she could finish, the Spineback's sail exploded, leaving a huge gaping hole in it.

"oops" Vic's voice came over the com.

The shot had the desired effect. The Spineback dashed out from behind its cover, the pilot probably panicked. "Now!" Sandra shouted, opening up on it with her top mounted cannons, the shots rocking the Zoid. The Command Wolf added its twin heavy cannons to the fire, tossing it sideways. It made a brief effort to get back to its feet, then gave up.

"Just another sad bunch of statistics." Vic's voice came over the comm.. In the distance, her Gunsniper shook off its cammo cover that had been covering it save for the end of its tail/cannon. The machine turned around and casually trotted towards the other two, its mass of cannons and large radome giving it a very odd-looking walk.

"Well, I guess this bunch aren't going anywhere anymore." Rick said, his wolf surveying the various wrecked Zoids. "Cool. Easy cash in hand. I can't believe that anyone would have a problem with this band of losers."

"Yes, but not everyone has a Zoid of their own to fight back with, Rick." Sandra replied, mentally adding "You big tool."

"Who cares?" Vic added as her Gunsniper joined them. "We killed the baddies. We get money now."

Sandra rolled her eye and sighed. How did she end up with these guys?

-----

Several hours and numerous negotiations later, the three Zoids reached their destination, a small, forgettable town in them idle of nowhere. Following behind them was a rental Gustav, its trailers currently covered in the wrecked bodies of five up until recently rouge Zoids. A quintet of pilots tied to one of the cranes attested to the success of their trip. The trio and their transport entered a ramshackle hanger that had been built at the outside of the town some time ago.

The instant her Shield Liger was parked, Sandra pulled off her pilots helmet and shook out her shaggy black hair. Hot... too hot, she thought to herself. Next time we have some money, I buy Spud a new aircon. The Shield Liger growled quietly. "Heh... sorry" she muttered. After a quick stretch, Sandra clambered out her cockpit, joining her two partners (for want of a better word.)

Rick was a all, lanky man with light blue eyes and shoulder-length, scruffy brown hair. He was handsome in a roguish, scruffy kind of a way. At the moment he was, as always, wearing a baggy khaki pilot suit and, despite the heat, a bomber jacket covered in various patches. Vic, on the other hand was of Average height and a slightly muscular build. She had short, scruffy blonde hair and disturbing light green eyes. She was wearing a camouflaged jumpsuit and sand protection goggles. At the moment she had her usual, somewhat insane grin on her otherwise attractive face. The reason for this was probably the wad of cash in Rick's hand. But then, with Vic, it was hard to tell.

"Hey, not bad for a bunch of Malders." Rick commented as he counted off the cash.

"Slimes." Sandra said back. "They're Slimes, not Malders."

"Same diff." Rick said, shrugging. "Slime, Malder... big robot snail with guns."

"Big slimy snail." Vic commented, and sniggered. They both looked at her.

"Right." They added at once.

There was an uncomfortable silence which was fortunately broken up by the arrival of their employer. A short, rotund man with rapidly thinning hair and a permanent sweat. He couldn't have looked any more different from Sandra; tall and muscular with pale skin, scruffy black hair and only one eye (the other being covered by a black patch with lots of scars visible around it). Rick and Vic took a step back, quietly indicating "You're the boss, you deal with it."

"Thank you for dealing with those... bandits." He began. "On behalf of the entire town I'd like to-"

"We get the idea." Sandra said. What she was thinking was "You really don't like us and given half a choice you'd never speak to us but you really wanted to get rid of your Zoid problem." She walked out of the hanger. Rick shrugged and looked at Vic. The two of them followed.

"There is one thing, however." He stammered out. Sandra glared at him. He almost shrank back. "We... we think that may not be all of them. Th-there have b-been some others from time to time. TH-those ones were just the most recent bunch, and the ones that had come around the most times. W-we think they could all be connected, like some sort of large gang or army."

Sandra looked around at the town. Numerous buildings were damaged or destroyed with several burnt-out hulks littering the street. All around, the people were trying to get on with their lives. "So in other words, what we've done today may just get them mad. And somebody will certainly come back here, regardless."

"Th-that's right." He stammered out.

"So in other words, you'll need us some more." Vic added, her odd accent colouring her words. "In other words, you'll need someone else to go out and find those baddies and then..." she formed her fingers into a gun shape and pointed them at his head. "Bang." He jumped.

"Nice one, Vic". Rick commented, whistling. "I think you nearly killed him."

"I try." She grinned in that disturbing way that made her look like she was about to bite you.

"Y-yes" he stammered, mopping his brow. "S-so, would you be able to...?" he trailed off, probably not sure about how one went about negotiating with three dangerous-looking people with Zoids.

"We'd have to think about it. Give us a sec." Sandra said. The three of them huddled. "Well?"

"The money's good for bagging Snails." Rick commented. "And if its anything like the last one, it'll be easy."

"Small Zoids go bang. Money good. Me like."

"That's a yes." Sandra said, glancing at Vic. The huddle broke up. "We'll do it."

"Th-thank you... I can't begin to say how thankful we-"

"BANG!" Vic fired another imaginary round from her finger-gun.

"...are." He finished, weakly.

"Smooth. Real smooth." Rick added. "So who's up for a drink?"

-----

Nameless pub

1630 hrs

The pub was battered and worn, just like the rest of the town. Run down, poorly lit, lacking in air conditioning and sparsely furnished, it was less than the ideal watering hole. On the other had it had four complete walls and a roof, which was more than many buildings in this town could boast. And there was nowhere else for miles around, which was another hit in its favour. Being the wrong time of afternoon in a thinly populated area, it was almost deserted, save for a few drunks and the three mercenaries.

"So let me get this straight..." Rick began. "They're Malders except when they're not Malders and then they're Slimes." He stared at the ceiling, counting things off on his fingers. "So when are they Slimes and not Malders?"

Sandra rolled her eye. She'd been over this before. "It's a racial thing. Like you're from the UZS and I'm from Raycliffe and Vic's from..." she clanked sideways at the blonde-haired woman, who was drinking her beer while waving around her finger gun, her goggles still on her forehead. "..somewhere. Slimes and Malders are the same, but from different places. Think of the Slime as a 'wild' Malder."

"And the Malder is a domesticated one, right?" Rick continued, his brain refusing to fully grasp the concept for heaven alone knows what reason.

"Yeah..." Sandra sipped her beer an continued. "Well, sort of. Slimes are 'mutant' Zoids, wild ones who don't have pilots. The same goes for Zattons; they're wild Geruders."

"And not wild Zatons." Vic added, then sniggered.

"But the ones we bagged had pilots." Rick commented. "So they're not wild..."

"Ugly, stinky, smelly, filthy, angry pilots." Vic added. "The scum of the Earth, the mess at the bottom of your beer mug... kinda like what I found in mine..."

Rick and Sandra put their beers down. "Yeah... that bugs me." Sandra stated. "My only thought is that those tools we took in had somehow managed to get in control of them."

"And if what fatty said was true, there could be a small army of them out there." Rick shrugged. "Oh well, more work for us. I need the money... I want to get bits for my Woof."

"Maybe they'll all be Terrareds. That'd be fun." Vic said as a weird grin spread across her face.

"Terrareds?" Rick asked, almost afraid of anything Vic might consider fun.

"Wild red Gildolers." Sandra replied.

"With suicidal tendencies." Vic finished. "Killer kamikaze attack ducks."

There was a stunned silence. Rick leaned closer to Sandra and whispered to her. "That girl just isn't right."

Sandra turned back to him with a look of amazement on her face. "Really?" she said, rolling it to emphasise the "r". "I'd have never noticed."

"Still, she's good material." Rick fossicked through his pack that he'd left by his chair, and fished out a sketchpad and a rather chewed pencil. Staring at Vic for a second, he began scribbling.

"Make sure you get my good side", Vic said, smiling at him in a disturbing way.

"You don't have a good side" Sandra muttered, before turning to Rick. "You're still determined to make that comic, aren't you?"

"What? What's wrong with that idea?" Rick said between scribbles.

"The market's flooded with Zoid comics. What's going to make yours special?" Sandra asked. "Besides pirating our likenesses... and no, making Vic's hair orangey-red and putting my patch on the other eye doesn't count.

"I could do orange." Vic muttered.

"Mine will be different." Rick continued, choosing to ignore what Sandra had said. "Y'see, at the moment the genre is dominated by stories of uber-powerful Darths who have awesome mega powers and super-duper Zoids and spend all day sitting around and whinging about how miserable their lives are. My comic is going to be real because I've been there. It's going to show what it's really like to be a Zoid pilot in all the gritty details." Sandra and Vic stared at him. "It's not going to be any sort of 'idealised' story with 'perfect' people with silly, plot driven personality issues and perfect bodies. It's going to be about real, normal people, people like you two."

There was a pause.

"He called us normal." Vic stated flatly.

"And said we don't have perfect bodies." Sandra added. Rick grinned nervously.

"Shall we hurt him?" Vic asked.

"Yes." Sandra replied, glaring at him.

-----

"Okay, guys... this isn't funny any more!" Rick shouted. At the moment he was tied to one of the Shield Liger's upper fangs (On the outside of it, fortunately). "Guys? Guys?"

"Did you hear something?" Sandra asked. She was currently leafing through Rick's sketchbook, looking at some of his work.

"Nope." Vic replied. "Some of this stuff isn't to bad, actually."

"Yeah..." Sandra commented, flipping over another page. "He's got talent, if some silly ideas." She flipped to another page. "I mean, Adolescent Evolved Samurai Terrapins? How did he come up with that crap." She flipped another page.

"Seems silly to me." Vic commented. "I look good there. Wish I could have a gravity defying figure like that, though."

"True." Sandra replied. "Maybe that's what he's doing out here trying to get inspiration. Maybe his ideas didn't go over well with the mangers."

"Okay, I'm sorry about what I said. You can let me down now!"

Vic flipped over another page. "Some of this stuff is just plain weird."

"No offence, Vic, but you're in no position to call anyone or anything weird." Sandra said. "But you are right. An alien raised by Farmers who has super powers? Who'd buy that?"

"Guys?"

"Still... can't ignore that talent." Sandra commented. "I guess they just didn't like the guy who came with it..." She squinted at a picture. "Although I'd never dress like that" She put the clipboard away. "Hungry?"

The two of them walked off, leaving Rick hanging. Literally.

-----

At some point during the night, somebody let him down. Without warning, they cut his rope, leaving him to fall to the floor.

-----

The hard concrete floor of the hanger, even with a bedroll and a sleeping bag was far from comfortable. Still, Rick had to admit that it was better than being strung up to a Zoid's tooth all night. Unfortunately for him, his few hours of sleep were rather rudely interrupted by a loud noise from outside. Sounded like someone revving a horribly over-engined car in the distance. It built up, and sped right past the hanger.

"It's too early in the morning for this..." he muttered as he got up, wearing only a pair of baggy shorts. Sandra and Vic were still asleep, Vic looking strangely peaceful in her sleep. The Zoids were likewise dormant, the Shield Liger and Command Wolf lying down, and the Gunsniper crouching, its tail and head wrapped around its body as best they could with the massive side cannons.

He peered outside. It was dawn. Not a social hour at the best of the time. The noise was back, coming from the other direction. Turning around, he saw the most bizarre looking Zoid he had ever seen in his life speeding towards him. It had a long, thin snakelike neck, a reptilian head with a bulbous canopy and a pair of gigantic wheels in place of legs. The Zoid sped past the hanger, this time firing randomly on anything that it could see.

"We're under attack!" Rick yelled as he ran back into the hanger. He grabbed Sandra's shoulder and shook her. "Get up! We're being attacked!"

"Wha?" Sandra muttered as she stirred. "What's up with you?"

"Attack!" Rick shouted. "Zoids. Silly looking. Wheels!"

"Tool." She sat up. "Right. Get Vic up and we'll try and stop 'em." She ran towards her Shield Liger. "C'mon, you big tool, get up!" The Liger picked its head up and opened the canopy, allowing Sandra to clamber in.

"Right now for... Vic..." Rick turned around to see her glaring at him, her hair more of a mess than usual.

"Why did you wake me?" She said slowly, an angry snarl forming.

"Um we're under attack." Rick stammered.

"Sounds like some tool in a Serpent, but I suspect there's more" Sandra added as the Liger roared to life.

"Oh. Thought it was something important" Vic stated as she casually strolled to her Gunsniper. "C'mon... time for some fresh meat."

Rick shook his head, and then ran to his own reawakening Command Wolf. Leaping into the cockpit and donning his helmet, he felt the familiar yet still exciting surge as the neural link between him and his Zoid was established. "C'mon woof. Let's get this guy." The Command Wolf stood up and followed the Shield Liger out. Behind it, the Gunsniper stood up, stretched, shook itself and followed them.

Outside, several of the remaining standing buildings in the town were ablaze. Several of the strange wheeled Zoids - Rick's targeting system called them Serpents - were speeding around the town, shooting at anything they came across.

"Woo. Wheelie Armageddon." Vic whistled. "Do we get 'em boss?"

"Might as well." Sandra replied. Her Liger took off, heading on after the nearest Serpent. "They're fast, but they've got few weapons. What they have points straight forward, so flank 'em if possible."

"Easy for you to say!" Rick shouted. Another one sped past him, several wild shots zipping past his Wolf. Turning to chase it down, he sped after it, firing several twin bursts from his cannon. The Serpent sped away from the shots and the Wolf. "I can't catch these guys!"

Another one rounded a corner, nearly on one wheel, speeding straight at Vic. "He's going to hit you!" Sandra shouted. In response, the Gunsniper turned to face the oncoming Zoid.

"Come onnnnnn..." Vic said, licking her lips, her Gunsniper standing in the middle of the road, bow legged, the morning sun behind her. The Serpent pilot must have suddenly realised something was going on here, as he tried to pull a sudden breaking turn. The Zoid slid sideways and skidded. "BANG!" Vic shouted as the eight side guns on her Gunsniper's Wild Weasel pod fired at once, ripping the Serpent apart. It skidded to a halt at her Zoid's feet, its head and the top of its neck sheared off with great holes rent in its structure.

"Reckless maniac." Sandra muttered to herself as she fired at a fleeing Serpent. Her target's high speed and the widening gap meant that her shots were going wide. She skidded to a halt at the outskirts of the town as the Serpent sped off. "Come back here and fight, ya big tool!" she shouted, angry at herself for letting it get away more than she was at her opponent. A bleep from the Liger's console grabbed her attention. Something small and fast was heading in her direction. The Liger's HUD outlined the object, then zoomed in.

It was a truck, a six-wheeled transport that had been painted in a grungy desert camouflage scheme. Oddly enough, it was heading towards the town at a rate of speed. Right now, any sensible people would be getting away or, if they were outside, be waiting out there for the bad guys to go away. The fact that it was camouflaged only made it more interesting to her.

She pushed the Liger into a run, heading towards the truck. Before she could get too close however, the Zoid was rocked by several shot impacting into its side. The Serpent she had chased away earlier was back, barrelling towards her Liger with speed, firing its weapons wildly. Rather than risk another hit, Sandra leapt out of its way. The Serpent fired several stray shots, then suddenly veered off.

"What's he up to?" She thought. Before she could think it through, the Serpent executed a stupidly tight turn and sped back at her, firing wildly. She put her shield up and deflected the shots. Once again, the Serpent suddenly veered off from the attack.

"Rick, you got a minute?" She shouted.

"No can do, sorry." He replied. "I've got my hands full with Mad Elvis number three here... Yaaah!" He added as the Wolf leapt aside form a volley of shots from the Serpent. "This moron's busy trying to hit and run me." He fired a pair of shots at the retreating Serpent, which went wide. "All we're doing is tearing up real estate."

"Tool." Sandra swore. "They're trying to keep us busy."

"Seems that way." Rick replied casually. "None of us have the armour to spare to check out whatever it is they're doing."

"Where's Vic gotten to anyway?" Sandra asked. "Last I saw, she took out one of those little..."

"Behind you!"

Sandra looked over her shoulder. The Serpent was speeding down the street, trying to come up behind her. Suddenly, the ground in front of it exploded, sending chunks of dirt flying and leaving behind a substantial crater. The Serpent veered off again, ending its attack run before it hit the hole.

"Damn." Came Vic's voice. Looking up, Sandra saw the Gunsniper standing back-on to her Shield Liger, it's tail gun smoking.

"That... that shot went right past my cockpit!" Sandra shouted.

"Yep."

"You could have killed me!"

"But I didn't." Vic replied. "Oh look... snakeys" The Gunsniper turned around, and then charged off to where Rick was fighting the other Serpent.

"Maniac."

"I am... REALLY getting sick of these guys!" Rick shouted as the Serpent veered off another attack run on him. The wolf ran off after it, but quickly lost the target. "They're just too damned fast... I swear, they're twice as fast as we are."

"Pretty much." Vic replied. "But all they can do is run. No good to fight. Die quickly."

"So what do you want to do?"

"I have a plan..." She grinned. Rick was worried.

-----

Steve was getting angry. The plan had been to roll into town, smash some stuff up, let the truck get in and out and then run away. They knew this town was a pushover. Not a problem, right? Except that there were three would-be heroes in Zoids here to stop them.

He had no illusions about what his Zoid was good for. The Serpent was good for attacking and running away. It could probably hold its own with only the smallest of Zoids. A Shield Liger, a Command Wolf or an up-gunned Gunsniper was far beyond it. But they needed to buy time, so they'd concentrated on running around.

This hadn't worked out that well. Virgil was down, taken out by the Gunsniper, who had simply fired a lot of rounds into him at point-blank range. He was still running, but he was getting worried. The Command Wolf had come dangerously close to hitting him on several occasions. "Damn it, man!" He shouted into the comm. "How long do we have to keep this up for?"

"Just a little longer" Horace, the leader of the team replied.

Steve swore under his breath. This was not going good. He sped at the Command Wolf again, following his usual "fire madly then swerve" attack run. However, instead of standing there like it had before, the Wolf charged at him, not bothering to stop to fire. He veered off into a side street, but something loomed up in front of him. It was the Gunsniper, which seemed to be grinning at him and bringing more weapons to bear than he'd expected on a Zoid of its size.

Crap.

Executing the tightest turn he could, the Serpent sped away form the Gunsniper, which began chasing after him. Gotta make it to the end of the street... he thought. Then the Command Wolf stepped out of nowhere. Now he was in trouble.

-----

"Worked like a charm" Rick said. He'd been weary of agreeing to anything that Vic thought up (Who wouldn't?) but this plan had seemed marginally less insane than what he'd expected it to be. The Serpent came barrelling straight at him, nowhere to run. "Bye-bye" he said as he fired his Wolf's twin cannons. With nowhere to turn to, the blasts both hit the lightly armed Zoid.

Its right wheel ripped from the body, causing the small Zoid to keel over onto its side, its momentum continuing to push it forward. Furrowing into the ground, the Serpent skidded towards Rick, stopping not too far from the front of the Command Wolf.

"Okay, wiseguy. You can either get out of that wreck you call a Zoid, or you can talk to Woof and his two guns." Rick broadcast over the Wolf's speakers, the twin heavy cannons pointed straight at the Serpent's wreck. "How'd I do?" he radioed to Vic.

"Best long-winded threat I've heard in ages" Vic replied.

"I guess we should go see if Sandra needs any help."

"Or we could just stay here and bug this guy" Vic replied, her Gunsniper looming over the Serpent.

"Come on. If we don't, she'll whinge about it." The Command wolf set off.

"Hmm... good point." The Gunsniper turned around, kicked some dirt onto the Serpent and followed after him.

-----

"You... are... starting..." Sandra shouted as the Shield Liger chased after the Serpent, firing its guns wildly. "...to REALLY piss me off!" she finished. The serpent responded by firing its two tail guns (Both going wide), before rounding the corner.

"Tool!" She shouted as she skidded the Liger around the corner. She was not going to let this guy get away from her. "Why do I have to get all the little tools in fast Zoids who do nothing but run away. Where's something big, dumb and inoffensive when I want it?" The Serpent swerved around another corner. "Who am I kidding? Knowing my luck, I'd go chasing a Bigasaur and end up picking a fight with a King Gojulas."

The Serpent rounded another corner, then, much to Sandra's surprise, stopped. Sandra skidded past it, bringing the liger around in a 180 degree turn that put it face-to-face with the Serpent. "All done running, are we?" she said. "Because you have just made a very, very stupid mistake." Then something caught her eye.

Behind the serpent was a particularly ugly, two-storey concrete building. What was drawing her attention was the truck parked next to it. It was the same desert cammo truck as before. "So what are you lot up to..." She thought.

The Serpent suddenly sped forward, veering around her Liger before firing at something behind her. "What's he..." Sandra began, then heard an Explosion. Turning around, she could see the source; the Serpent had fired upon a refuelling station. At the moment the fire was contained but if it spread...

"You tool." The small Zoid sped past her, while the truck pulled away from the building. It was slow and vulnerable, and her Liger could easily catch it but...

Damn that sense of Civic responsibility. Turning back towards the fire, she activated the Liger's shield. The Zoid growled at her. "Don't worry, kitty. I know what I'm doing." She glared at the retreating truck and Zoid. "Let's do it." The Liger ran at the fire, literally throwing itself on the flames, its shield all bot smothering them.

"Just gotta hold... a little longer..." Sandra snarled, her teeth clenched... "Just a little longer..."

Then the tank blew. Thanks to the Liger's shield smothering it, the explosion was contained and short lived. A brief puff, and it was out. The Liger ended up lying on its side, the shield holding, the Zoid unharmed save for some damage to the paintwork.

"I've got to kick this whole caring for others thing." Sandra muttered. The Zoid growled, and then rolled back onto its feet. The Command Wolf and Gunsniper arrived a few second alter.

"We got the other snake" Rick began.

"He fell down, went bang." Vic finished.

Pausing for a minute, not sure of what to say, Rick looked back at Sandra. "What happened here?"

"The tool in the third Serpy blew up a petrol station to get away" Sandra replied, angrily. "I had to throw myself at it." The Liger shook itself off. "In the meantime they got away with a truck full of the guys we got yesterday."

"Well they didn't get much for it." Rick noted, whistling. "Five pieces of desert scum for two Zoids doesn't seem like much of a fair deal to me." He looked around. "Still, they made a mess out of the town. What do you think this all means?"

"Work. Find baddies. Make them dead. Ka-ching!" Vic replied, her Gunsniper peeing out over the hills the truck and Serpent had vanished over.

Sandra noted the man from yesterday approaching her Zoid, several other terrified-looking locals behind him. "Pretty much so. Damn, I can't deal with this right now. I need to get dressed and have my morning coffee before contract negotiations."

"I can talk to them" Vic stated. "I'm an excellent negotiator."

"Nope." Rick stated. "No offence, but I don't want you speaking for us. We'll need to get someone else."

"Good job you volunteered." Sandra stated as the Shield Liger turned around and walked off to the hanger. "We'll be in the shelter if you need us."

"We need money. Remember that or die." Vic added. "Ta-ta" The Gunsniper walked off.

"Great. Just great. Rick said. Well, fine. He was going to see if the town could cope with the sight of him in his boxers.

-----


	3. Screaming Mad Iguanas

Whale King _Dark Star_

Above the wastelands

0955 hours

The Dark Star's briefing room was designed to hold the all the pilots of a full compliment of Zoids. At the moment, it held four people which only served to make it seem larger. The walls, floors and ceiling were all a dull military grey, making the room seem larger still. There were several large display screens built into the wall, none of which were active which only emphasised the dull colour of the room.

The four pilots - one woman, the other men - all wore variations on the same grey uniform, which only added to the lack of colour in the room. The woman yawned and stretched. "When's the boss coming? I've been here for ages." She had long brown hair that had been coloured red, brown eyes and numerous tattoos down her bare arms.

"Be quiet, Corporal Cade" a second man snapped. He was the largest of the four, with close-cropped brown hair, brown eyes and a heavily muscled body. He was also one of only two of the soldiers wearing the full standard uniform. "The captain will begin the briefing on time. And you will refer to her by rank at all times unless instructed otherwise."

"You're such a stickler, Bob" the man next to him added. Dark skinned and muscular with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes, he also wore a sleeveless uniform. "And leave Bekka alone. It's not going to hurt anyone if she doesn't refer to the commander by rank."

"I am merely pointing out regulations to Corporals Cade and Senior." Bob continued.

"And I'm sure that Bekka and Alexander both know the regulations, Bob." The fourth man added. Almost as tall as Bob, he had short-cropped black hair, light green eyes and a scar on his forehead.

"I was just reminding the corporals of the regulations, Sergent Black sir!" He replied, stiffly.

"He's such a stiff." Bekka whispered to Alex, who grinned.

At that point the door opened, ending all conversation. A tall, attractive woman entered, with dark skin and very long black hair that framed very deep, dark brown eyes. She wore a full uniform and a peaked officers hat. The four pilots all stood and saluted.

"At ease." She replied. They sat. She walked to the podium at the front of the briefing room. "Gentlemen, our mission begins today with this engagement. This may seem like a trivial operation; rooting out a few marauding desert bandits hardly seems important, and they are certainly of no threat to us or our homes. But what you must realise is that this operation is about more than a few bandits."

She paused, looking out over her men. They were good soldiers. Young, enthusiastic and inexperienced, maybe, but at the same time they were loyal, dedicated and very talented at what they did. "Our army has seen very little combat, and none of it against a large or organised force. What we are doing here is testing our forces. Measuring our abilities against the enemies we are likely to face. This way, we will be able to evaluate our own training schemes, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of our troops. At the same time, we gain real experience in combat, and are able to measure our enemies against ourselves."

The screen behind her came to life, showing a patch of desert. At the same time, a 3-D projection began in front of the podium, showing a bowl-shaped depression in the desert. "This location has been identified as a major enemy staging ground. Their forces often pass through here en route to their raids. Sergent Black and I will deploy here." An arrow appeared on the display, indicating one of the higher rises above the depression. "Corporal Cade will burrow around to this location and deploy here." A second arrow indicated an area on the other side of the bowl. "Corporals Kahm and Senior will remain with Cade to provide close-in protection. After bombarding the enemy, we will close in for the kill. Cade and Black will continue to provide support fire, while the rest of us crush them."

The map changed to a display showing various views of various Zoids, accompanied by a rotating 3-D model on the hologram. "These are the types we will likely encounter. Zatton, Zunder, Spineback, Hellrunner, Slitherzoid, Slime and Serpent. There may be air support in the form of Zarks, but it is very unlikely." The display closed. "Any questions?"

"Captain Magyari" Bob's hand went up. "Why has Corporal Cade been given the fire support assignment?"

"Corporal Cade was given the assignment on the basis of her performance in exercises." The captain replied. "Her evaluations suggested that she was the best for the role."

Bekka elbowed Alex. "Looks like someone has a case of Iguana envy", she whispered. He sniggered in response.

The commander continued, choosing to ignore them. "Are there any other questions?" A pause. "We will arrive at our destination at 1100 hours. I want you all ready to move out then. Dismissed."

-----

Lair of Evil

1015 hours

Grant was not a happy man. It was rare that he was a happy man, but today he was especially unhappy. He had a thin, pointy face with a shaved head and plenty of stubble, with narrow, dark eyes. He wore a tattered pilots suit, topped off with a cape that was frayed at the end. He was currently sitting on his throne, peering angrily at his underlings. "So tell me again, in as simple words as possible, what you did." The "throne room" was actually the bridge of a long-dead Whale King, and his "throne" its command chair, but the effect was the same. Grant liked it for the feeling of authority it gave him.

The group of Zoid pilots before him squirmed. Horace, their leader stepped forward. He was a big, hairy man with a permanent blank expression. "We was trying to get these guys-"He indicated to five of the pilots off too one side. "-out of the slammer where they was banged up."

Grant sat back. "So you took your three Zoids into town to get five pilots back. And you come back with seven pilots and only one Zoid. That hardly seems like a good transaction to me."

"Well we did get Steve and Virgil back after they got shot up"Horace began.

"Yeah, man!" Steve shouted. "There was a bunch of Zoids in that town that we hadn't counted on." He counted on his fingers. 'There was a Command Wolf, a Gunsniper and, uh, some sort of Liger." He was an overweight black man with a moustache and short hair who fairly bulged out of his uniform.

Grant turned towards the five pilots that they had rescued. "And are these the same Zoids that attacked you yesterday?"

Somebody shoved Sean, the smallest of them forward. Despite his beard and long hair, he always managed to look like a scrawny kid. "Yeah, well there was a Shield Liger, a Command Wolf and a Gunsniper with the big gun pod on its back... could be them."

"Right." Grant sat back on his throne. "Since you people have fought these Zoids before, you would undoubtedly recognise them if you saw them again." He steeped his fingers together. "I suspect that somebody has grown tired of our little operation and decided to do something about it. I want you lot to act as an observation unit for our forces. Inform me of anything that tries to enter our territory. Let nothing get past you."

"And if we run into those Zoids?" Sean stammered.

"Well then you had better defeat them." Grant replied. "For your sake."

-----

Between two patches of desert

1030 hours

"So despite having to talk to my boxer shorts, they seemed pretty happy to re-hire us." Rick stated as his command wolf loped through the desert, maintaining a steady 120 kilometres per hour. They knew they had no chance whatsoever of catching the fast-moving Serpent, and the truck had been strangely elusive and hadn't left much in the way of tracks. It was almost a casual stroll.

"I could never talk to your shorts" Vic stated, her Gunsniper walking alongside the wolf.

"So what did you agree on?" Sandra added, her Shield Liger virtually walking along on the other side of the Wolf.

"They want us to engage in an extended campaign of dealing with the baddies. They figure the guys we did in yesterday and the guys who buzzed us this morning are just a smaller part of a larger gang." Rick continued. "So what I figure is we blat baddies until they get sick of being shot, the town gets sick of paying us or we get sick of it."

"Blat." Vic said, then sniggered.

"Well I guess that makes some degree of sense." Sandra stated. "They know we're all they've got. Without them, they're sitting out there with nothing to cover their dates from the first bunch of Mutant Gerwalk Zoids that come along."

"Gerwalk." Snigger.

"So what I figure is we do a sweep of the area and hound around for them." Rick continued. "Any we find, we take out. Maybe we can get some sort of 'by head' pay scheme going. The more baddies we kill, the more money we get."

"That's very mercenary of you, Rick." Sandra said. "But then, given what we do for a living, I suppose it should be listed as an admirable trait. Being a money-grubbing, self-centred tool probably means that you're in the right mind for the job."

The three of them continued to amble through the desert in silence, following the Zoid tracks. Finally, Rick spoke up. "So what did you guys think of the comic book stuff?"

Sandra muttered.

"I like it." Vic spoke up. "Your mixture of the gritty war story with its death, destruction, grit, blood and gore and the larger than life, fantastic, borderline insane characters who seem to be ignorant of the world around them makes for an interesting juxtaposition between the real world and the fantasy of war that people believe in and the harsh reality."

There was a very long uncomfortable silence. "Vic" Sandra finally said. "You realise that those 'borderline insane characters' you were discussing are us."

"I know." Vic said. "Cool, isn't it?"

They continued in silence.

-----

Whale King _Dark Star_

Above the wastelands

1045 hours

Sel Magyari stared down into the hanger bay where the rest of her men were busy prepping their Zoids. She sighed and breathed deeply. No turning back now. In about an hour, her men would be committed to battle. She'd be leading them into their first true combat operation... her first one as well. Everything so far had been exercises or practice. But the real thing...

"Am I ready for this?" she asked herself. It was for the cause, she thought. She was doing it for the cause. For the lives that depended on her success. For the people that she would be protecting. For the world she had never seen that one day, if she was successful, they may yet return to...

"You okay there?" She was shocked out of her thoughts. Turning around, she saw Matt, her executive officer approaching. "Its not normal for commanders to stare longingly into hanger bays."

"I was just thinking, that's all. About the battle and all..." She looked him directly in the eye. "Matt, you've seen real combat experience."

He gently rubbed the scar above his right eye. "Yes, I have. None to pleasant either."

"So why was I chosen to lead this unit rather than you?" She asked, and not for the first time. "You're older and have far more actual field experience then I do." She leant back against the railing.

"And you have scored far better than me in your combat evaluations and simulated exercises in every area." He replied. "You're a better leader, a better planner, a better tactician and-"she was about to say something before he cut her off. "-a far better pilot."

Sel was quiet for a moment. "And my men?"

Matt looked down over the bay. "They're good. Bob is a blockhead but he's a competent one who can follow orders. Bekka and Alexander are both good, even if Bekka is a little easily excitable. But they can be relied upon to follow your orders. And unless we run into a red Mammoth, they can handle anything these bandits have."

She sighed. "Thanks Matt... I don't know what came over me."

"Its pre-battle nerves." He replied. "It happens to everyone. I was like this before my first battle. And it shows that you're a human being, not just some killing machine with a mouth."

She smiled. "Thanks." There was a pause. "So do you think we can do it? I mean, not just us, but all of us... our people..."

Matt looked down into the bay. "I hope so. For all our sakes, I hope so."

-----

A bowl-shaped depression in the middle of the desert

1055 hours

After a lot of planning and arguing, the bandit group had agreed upon a semblance of a plan. They would travel out to a particular depression that was often used as a staging ground for their raids, drink a few beers and eventually think up some sort of patrol pattern that would give Grant the warning he needed before anybody else tried to attack.

And if they met those Zoids again, they'd give 'em hell. Three on eight? Not a chance.

Their small collection of Zoids were now parked in a rough circle around the depression, with the thugs in the middle, drinking heavily. "That guy... He's crazy." Sean said as he chugged down a beer. "I mean, he goes all Kong crap at us because we lost a couple of Zoids."

"I think its the fact that we lost five at once." Paul replied. He was a huge man, incredibly tall and rather overweight. "And you lost another two getting us out."

"Man doesn't appreciate loyalty." Horace said, sulkily. As the only one to come back with a Zoid from the prisoner raid, he had been left with the Serpent he'd taken out, which was not making him happy. "If I was in charge, I'd be glad my men had been rescued, regardless of the cost."

They all nodded sagely, then drank some more beers. Life in the gang had been good up until recently. They had gone from a bunch of thugs to a bunch of thugs with Zoids. Now they could do what they wanted, say what they wanted, beat up who they wanted, knock over even the biggest caravans, terrorise towns, loot and pillage to their hearts content. But then those mercenaries had come along and beat them up, and Grant had suddenly started shouting at them. Just because they messed up a bit... Its not like they'd been doing badly before. The gang had flourished so far.

"So what's the plan, H?" Steve asked. He was sporting several bandages as a result of his Serpent crashing and rolling.

Horace stood up. "We gotta get out on patrol. If those mercs come through again, we bag 'em and show 'em to Grant. He'll like that."

"Yeah..." Sean said. "I like that."

"And if we come across anything, we smash it and steal the loot!" Steve added. "That should put us in his good books."

"Yeah!" They all shouted.

"But first, a beer!" Paul added.

"Beer!"

-----

Random patch of desert

1100 hours

The three Zoids continued their stroll through the desert, their shadows lengthening as the sun rose higher and the day grew hotter.

"So does anyone here actually know where we're going?" Rick said. The other two Zoids turned to look at him. "What? WHAT?!?" In spite of the blank canopies they had for faces, he could swear the Shield Liger and Gunsniper were glaring at him.

"We thought..." Sandra began, clearly trying to remain calm. "We thought that you knew where the tools were based. So we were following you."

"Big mistake." Vic said, no expression in her voice.

"I... I... I..." he said, stammering, his Wolf cowing its head and slowly backing off in response to his fear flooding the neural link. "I thought we could track the serpent and find his lair and rout out the bad guys and..." he paused. I swear, those two are getting angrier looking.

The Gunsniper and Liger walked closer. "So you're telling us that you have no idea where we are going, what we are doing and what we're going to face there?" Sandra said. "You big, fat stupid hairy tool!"

"Big, big mistake." Vic said, tonelessly. "You die now."

"Come on! Give me a break!" Rick shouted. "Surely we can work something out!"

"Right." The Liger stopped advancing, the Gunsniper looking at it. "Lets think this through. The bad guys have to be based somewhere, right?"

"Right." Rick said.

"And we're going to assume they're not dumb enough to lead us straight back to their lair, right?" Sandra stated.

"It'd be funny if they did." Vic said, sniggering. "Word class idiots."

"I don't think they'd be that dumb." Rick said. "I mean, this isn't some stupid comic or anything... What?"

"Remind me to dig up some reviews of his work when we're done." Sandra said.

"Yes. Good plan." Vic replied. "See what kind of mind we're dealing with."

"Anyways, there may be a number of places they could hang out and stage ops from." Sandra continued. "Our best bet is to find those places and see if they're at any of them."

"And if we find 'em we bag 'em dead." Vic finished. "Bang!"

"Right." Rick said, considerably relieved. He bought up a map of the area in his Wolf's cockpit. "Hmm... there's a spot close by here that could be a staging ground. It's a depression in the middle of a hard clay area... that'd cover their tracks rather well. And its got good wind shelter as well."

Sandra studied the map. "Its close enough to the town and the main trade routes to be convenient, but not close enough to be obvious." She rubbed her chin. "I say we go for it. Vic?"

"I haven't killed anything in ages." She replied hungrily. "Let's go."

-----

Overlooking a depression in the desert

1115 hours

Deep within the armoured crew compartment of her Darkhorn, Sel waited patiently. "Targets confirmed. Two Serpents, two Hellrunners, one Zatton, one Zunder, two Slimes." Bekka's voice came over the communicator. "They do not appear to be aware of our presence."

"And your status?"

"I am in position as per the plan." She continued. "My Heldigunner is still submerged, but near the surface."

"And the others?"

"Kahm and Senior's Zoids are next to mine, still buried and awaiting orders." Bekka replied.

"Good work, Cade." Sel stated. "I have put a lot of trust in you with this assignment. Don't disappoint me."

"Yes captain." She replied.

The Darkhorn turned towards its companion Zoid, a massive Deadborder. "Sergent Black, what is your status?"

"In position and ready to go." Matt replied as the Deadborder turned its head side to side, the various tubes on its neck moving in odd ways with it.

Good. Sel thought to herself. We're ready, they're unprepared. They outnumber us, but we have a considerable edge in firepower. And I doubt that their tactics are up to much. Otherwise somebody would be watching for us.

"All units. Fire."

Across the other side of the depression, the earth shifted. A black and green Heldigunner emerged from the earth, a massive cannon running the length of its body. Clamping its claws down, the Zoid shook as the massive cannon fired.

Sel moved her Darkhorn forward, and angled the main cannon assembly up. The tripled-barrelled artillery cannon on the side fired, while next to it the Deadborder fired its twin gravity cannons. The result was instant. The Zunder was rocked by a hit, sending it keeling over onto its side, while one of the Slimes took a hit in its side, tearing huge gouges out of its armour.

"Again!" Sel ordered. Another barrage of fire saturated the targets. The Slime took another hit, ripping its shell apart and almost certainly disabling it. Another shell nearly missed the Zatton, sending it sprawling forwards.

"Again!" A third barrage rocked the enemies, doing less damage notable damage, save for finishing off the already damaged Slime. The Zatton and Zunder righted themselves and began to move, heading up the hill towards Sel's position, the Slime deploying its cannons and following them slowly. The remaining Hellrunner and the Serpents also moved out, heading towards the Heldigunner cannon.

"Cease fire!" Sel ordered. "All units, move in. Cade, maintain your position and cut off any that try to escape."

The Darkhorn and Deadborder surged forwards, cresting the hill and advancing towards the enemy Zoids. On the other side, a second green and black Heldigunner emerged from the ground, advancing down the hill.

They're charging head on at an unknown enemy who is holding superior ground. These people are idiots. Sel thought. This will be easy.

The Hellrunner suddenly stopped and tripped over as the ground underneath it collapsed. One of the Serpents also suddenly tipped forwards. Not too far from them, a Heldigunner popped up from under the ground, hissing. The Hellrunner struggled to its feet and leapt away from the hole, while the Serpent flailed its wheels ineffectually. The Heldigunner fired a burst from its quad-cannon, tearing huge chunks from the side of the Serpent, wrecking one of its wheels. A second burst knocked it over, smoke billowing form its side.

The second Serpent and the Hellrunner ducked around the Heldigunner, and headed towards the second, already surfaced one. Both fired wildly as they went, the Hellrunner spraying the area with rockets from its back-mounted pod while the Serpent fired its small body guns. The Heldigunner was hit several times, rocked by the explosions and impacts.

"Somebody help me out here!" Bob shouted as he fired back with his back-mounted cannon. The Serpent weaved sideways, dodging the shells. "Where are you, Alex?"

"I've got them!" Bekka shouted as her Heldigunner fully emerged from the dirt.

"Hold your position, Cade!" Sel shouted over the comm. "Let Senior deal with-"

"FIRE!" Cade shouted. The Massive 120mm cannon fired, sending a shell sailing into the Serpent, blasting one wheel off. "Again!" A second shell landed between the Hellrunner and Bob's Heldigunner, Knocking the Hellrunner over and showering the damaged Heldigunner with debris.

"What are you doing?!" Bob shouted. "You're going to hit-"

"FIRE!" A third shot arced down, almost hitting the Heldigunner.

"Cease fire immediately, Cade!" Sel shouted over the communicator.

"But I-"She shouted.

"You nearly hit Kahm's Zoid." Sel stated.

"But the Hellrunner-"

"Is being dealt with." Sel finished. As she spoke, Alexander's Heldigunners fired on the remaining Hellrunner, the rounds tearing huge gouts of armour from its flank. The Hellrunner tripped forward and crashed face-first onto the ground, then stopped.

"Idiots-" Sel began, then was cut bought back to her current situation by hit to her Darkhorn that rocked the cockpit. The Zoid's systems showed that the damage amounted to little more than armour, and highlighted the source of the attack, the Zunder currently charging at her.

Sel charged down the hill, firing the Darkhorn's 60mm autocannon and beam cannon at the Zattonr. The cannon shells ripped armour off the side and legs of the Zunder, while the beam cannon speared straight through its armour. The small Zoid turned away from her and tried to flee, its performance hampered by a limp it had developed in its damaged leg.

"You're not getting away!" Sel shouted as her Darkhorn charged at the Zatton. The huge Zoid crashed straight into the smaller red mutant, its massive horn crushing the already damaged armour on the Zunder's side. The Zaton was momentarily lifted into the air, then crashed down onto its side, sliding down the side of the hill.

Its companion, the Zunder fared little better. Hammered by rounds from Matt's Deadborder, it shook numerous times before simply keeling over onto its side, its head and neck rising briefly before crashing onto the ground for the final time.

The remaining Serpent broke off its attack on the Heldigunners, and began to circle around the edge of the depression. Behind it, the Slime also tried to back up, firing its cannons as it went at the Deadborder and Dark Horn.

-----

Horace was running scared. He was pushing his Serpent to move as fast as it could. He had to get away. He hadn't been expecting this... he'd never thought that someone would attack them out here in this place. And even if they had, he'd been expecting the three mercenaries they fought earlier, not five well-coordinated guys in big-arse Zoids. He realised that he was leaving his buddies behind, but he also realised as the remaining Slime exploded, that he'd rather be alive.

As his Serpent crested the edge of the depression, he felt a feeling of relief. He had gotten away from them. Of course, he'd now have to explain to Grant what had happened to his men and their Zoids... or he could just leave. Yeah, Grant probably would think that he was dead, anyway. He could leave the gang and strike out on his own... he had a Zoid, he could do it. Okay, so it was just a Serpent, but it was a start. He could use it to get some followers, get some Zoids, raid caravans... he could make it big...

His daydream was cut off as his Zoid was rocked by a massive explosion, and crashed face-first onto the ground. Horace fell forwards, bashing his head against the console which was screeching various warnings. A second explosion threw the Serpent forwards, silencing all the warnings by the simple expedient of completely shutting down the Zoid.

He woozily looked up from the cockpit, only to see the massive shape of the Darkhorn lumbering towards him, its beam gattling cannon barrels smoking as it advanced. He pulled on the safety harness that kept him strapped into the command couch. It refused to budge. Desperate, he fumbled with the clip as the Darkhorn came closer.

-----

The operation had been a success. Their enemies were destroyed. Her troops had come through almost completely unscathed. Only one loose end remained. She steered her Darkhorn towards the mangled wreckage of the Serpent. The back half of the zoid was a mess of twisted, burning metal and black smoke, with one of the wheels irreparably bent out of shape. Oddly enough, the head and neck had survived intact. That was a problem that would need to be resolved.

She stopped the Darkhorn by the Serpent's head, then raised the right front leg, hovering the foot above the cockpit. "It has to be done" she told herself. "It has to be done. There must be..."

"Don't do it, Sel." Came Matt's voice over the communicator.

"But he saw us, Matt." She replied, ignoring the way he addressed her. "He saw us and we have to make sure he doesn't tell anyone..."

"He's no threat to us." Matt replied. "Our Zoids are unidentifiable, our allegiance unknown. To them, we could be anyone; we could be from the UZS or Empire or Mercenaries or even other bandits. He hasn't seen anything to identify us, and he can't say where we're from."

She stopped. Slowly she backed the Darkhorn away from the Serpent. "Thanks..." she said, quietly. "Why... why did you stop me?"

Matt was silent for a minute before responding. "Because I don't believe you're a killer."

"But I have killed..." she replied. "In battle..." She thought about the Zatton and the Slime she had destroyed. They hadn't checked them yet, but it didn't look like the pilots of either had survived.

"But not like this." Matt finished. "That was war. That was what you had to do. This is murder. This is unnecessary."

"I..." she began, then stopped. "Thank you, Matt." She looked down, feeling ashamed at herself. Her Darkhorn picked up her feelings through the link, and looked down (and straight at the Serpent's cockpit.

"Let's go." Matt said. "You have a serious discipline problem to deal with."

Sel sighed and sat back. "I'm not looking forward to it. But it's a part of the job I might as well get used to." Her Zoid turned around and headed back to the depression, where the other members of her force were. The Deadborder cast one look at the downed Serpent, then followed.

-----

Desert

1130 hours

"Well, this should be it." Rick said, looking up from the map on his Wolf's display. The three of them had arrived at the depression, and were currently behind a large hill on one side of it.

"There's smoke in the air." Sandra observed, noticing the columns of smoke rising from the depression. "It could be a large encampment."

"Probably best not to charge on in then." Rick observed. "Somebody better take a look."

"I'll go" Vic immediately said. "I got good sensors. Long range gun. Can spot opponents, possible ambush... pluck 'em off."

"Right. But if you get in any trouble-"Sandra begin.

"Start shooting." Vic finished. "I got you, boss." The Gunsniper immediately ran up the hill, stopping at the top, before turning around, its foot claws digging into the ground.

"She's going into sniper mode." Sandra said. "Great. That little tool's going to start a fight or-"

"Better take a look at this." Vic interrupted, making 'come here" gestures with its arm.

The Command Wolf and Shield Liger looked at each other, then advanced up the hill. Peering over the rim, they saw what had grabbed her attention. Below them, in the depression was the burning wreckage of seven red mutant Zoids.

"Two Slimes, two Hellrunners, a Zaton, a Zunder and a Serpent." Sandra said, whistling. "Someone did a pretty good demolition job on these guys."

"There's a second Serpent a bit out of the crater, over there." Vic said, pointing with her Gunsniper's tail. "Pilot looks to be alive. I can gloop him if you want."

"No, just hold on for a moment." Sandra said.

"So what do we do now?" Rick asked.

"Well..." Sandra replied, slowly. "We need to round up the surviving pilots. These tools didn't do this to themselves. Somebody wiped them out, and I intend to find out who it was."

"And then..." Rick continued, thinking. "Then we can hand these guys in to the town, and get paid for wiping 'em out!"

"I like you." Vic said, looking at him.

Sandra walked her Shield Liger down into the depression. Whoever did this had been packing some serious firepower; some of the Zoids looked like they'd been hit by large artillery weapons. Whoever had done this was not messing around. But who was it?


	4. Plans, rituals and Mr Stick

Whale King _Dark Star_

Above the wastelands

1300 hours

"All right!" Bekka shouted as the cockpit of her Heldigunner. "We kicked some serious arse!"

"That we did." Alex added as he walked past. She leapt down from the cockpit and landed next to him.

"They never saw us coming!" she shouted. "We just snuck up on them and... wham! They didn't suspect a thing." She pulled off her gloves and counted on her fingers. "I figure I got two of 'em... three maybe, We'll have to see how the results go from the artillery attacks..."

"You almost got me." Bob angrily stated as he walked over to the pair of them. "Your disregard for the commanders orders and your relentless over-enthusiasm nearly destroyed my Zoid and got me killed. You are a menace to this unit."

"Look, if I hadn't fired, you would have been killed anyway." Bekka replied. "That Snakey and Hellrunner had you outnumbered, out manoeuvred and outgunned.

"I was capable of handling the situation myself." Bob answered back. "I was about to deal with them when you almost killed me."

"That's up to the commander to decide" Alexander replied.

As if on cue, Sel walked over with Matt behind her. The three of them stood at attention. Sel said nothing, walking past each of them, looking each of them in the face. Eventually she stopped in front of Bekka. "What did you think you were doing out there, corporal?" She asked, no expression in her voice.

"I was assisting corporal Kahm, captain." She immediately replied.

"Did I give you an order to assist the Corporal or to maintain your position?" Sel asked.

"To maintain my position, captain." She replied.

"You disobeyed my order and acted in a reckless manner that endangered the life of one of your fellow soldiers." Sel continued. Bob almost cheered. "However, as you did prevent the loss of his Zoid and this is your first offence, I will leave it at a note on your permanent record." Sel pressed a few buttons on the small computer she wore on her wrist. "See that it does not happen again."

"Yes captain." Bekka replied, sullenly. The look of disappointment on Bob's face was clear.

"Also from today forward, you have been removed from heavy weapons duty. I will have the heavy cannon moved from your Zoid-"Bob looked up again "To corporal Senior's." Once again, the disappointment on Bob's face was obvious.

"Yes captain." Bekka replied, meekly.

"There will be a debriefing in thirty minutes." Sel continued. "I recommend you all shower and clean up before then. Dismissed."

-----

Patch of Desert

1400 Hours

A call or two back to town had resulted in the arrival of a battered U-Haul Gustav, the same one that had picked up the ruined Zoids yesterday. In it was the same battered Gustav Driver, as well as their overweight and bald employer. Rick and Vic had quickly set about convincing him that they had indeed obliterated these eight red mutants and that they should be paid for their time, money and ammo. Fortunately, he hadn't asked about how they had reeked so much destruction.

Sandra had excused herself ("I don't have a face for negotiations.") and had gone around the back of the Gustav where the surviving pilots were lashed to the trailer. Sizing them up, she recognised several of them from the haul she'd bought in the previous day. "Well, well, well..." Sandra said. One of the ones from yesterday, a kid with long hair and the sort of beard worn by eighteen year olds who are trying to convince people they're older. Like the others, he wore several bandages over assorted injuries. Ignoring the others, she walked over to him. "Well, this is a surprise." She began, the sarcasm colouring her voice. "Yesterday I blew away some bunch of tools. If I recall, you were one of them."

"I don't know nuffin' about it." He replied, trying not to meet her glare. It's very hard to out-stare someone with one eye, especially when the sun is behind them.

"Really?" Sandra replied, mock surprise in her voice. "The funny thing is, you escaped from us this morning. Then, we catch up with you guys and we find that some person has gone and ripped you guys a bunch of new date-holes." She waited for a reply, but the kid just muttered. Oddly enough, none of his mates seemed to want to talk either. "Or am I to assume that through friendly fire, probably bought on by some manly tussling and too much booze, you destroyed each other's Zoids, incidentally killing three of your fellow mutant Gerwalk biker buddies."

There was a long pause.

"Oh yes," Sandra added. "In the process, your Zoids all magically developed a variety of heavy artillery and beam weapons as well as what appears to be a Gravity Cannon or other high-energy beam wepaon." She narrowed her eye, seemingly glaring straight through him. "I mean, it could be a case of spontaneous Zoid evolution and de-evolution. Or maybe the assorted heavy weapons were all vaporised when your Zoids were destroyed." She grinned. "Although the thought of a Hellrunner mounting a 120mm cannon is pretty funny, you must admit."

The fat, hairy guy next to the kid nudged him (or as much as he could with his hands tied). "Okay... we met some other Zoids." He muttered.

"Goooood boy." Sandra said. "Now who were they?"

"I... uh dunno." He replied. "There was five of 'em. They just attacked us cause... I dunno."

"Maybe it was your hygiene." Sandra muttered. "So what types, and who were they?"

"There were three Heldigunners, a black Redhorn and a Darkborder." He replied.

"That's 'Deadborder', moron." Sandra replied, then paused. "And there's no such thing as a 'black Redhorn.' It's called a 'Darkhorn.' Stupid Zombiekid." She sighed. "Well... at least I know what they are. Now who are they?"

"Um... I dunno." The kid replied. "They just, y'know, came out of nowhere."

"Along with all the little pink Elephanders right?" Sandra asked rhetorically. She could smell the booze on their breath.

"Naw, I'm serious!" the kid yelled. "There we was, minding our own business, tossing back a few cans when... pow! These guys attacked us without warning!"

"He's telling the truth." The big, hairy thug added. "We was doing nuffink and they attacked us. They didn't make any demands or say nothing. They jus' shot at us."

"What a tragedy." Sandra said, sarcasm dripping from her words. "A bunch of desert bandits cruelly ambushed without warning. Eliminated by a ruthless enemy before they could defend themselves." She glared at fatty. "The irony is killing me."

"But it's true!" he replied. "They came outta nowhere and wiped us out! We never stood a chance!"

Sarcasm was truly wasted on the stupid, she thought. "Right. So you have no idea who these tools are, where they came form or why they chose to unleash a metric butt-load of boof on you." She looked over the lot of them. "Oh well, can't be helped." She smiled. "Now there is one other minor matter I'd like cleared up before I let the local authorities take over."

They all looked at her nervously. Fat and hairy nudged kid again. "What?" the kid nervously replied.

Sandra leaned forwards until she was all but in his face. "Your band is big enough to blow two Zoids rescuing five pilots who got their Zoids frelled up beforehand. And then you replace them all with seven new Zoids, thus making a total of fifteen, assuming one of those Serpents down there is the same one that got away this morning." She paused. "But somehow I doubt that there's enough left to tell. So some body out there is willing to throw Zoids away to a bunch of stupid unwashed tools, and I want to know who they are, where they're at and how much more they have."

Silence.

"Right. Since you're determined to do this the hard way, I'll do it the hard way." She turned to her two teammates, who were currently making their employer's day hell. "Hey Vic, get over here. I need your help with something."

-----

Whale King _Dark Star_

Above the wastelands

1500 hours

The small compliment of Zoid pilots on board the _Dark Star _were again gathered in the Whale King's briefing room. Unlike the last time a few hours ago, the room was silent as each one of them mulled over the mornings battle. For all but one of them, it had been their first taste of live combat. Now that the euphoria and excitement had worn off, the reality of it all set in.

Sel entered, wearing her full uniform as before. The four of them stood and saluted. "At ease." she ordered, and they sat. She took her usual place behind the podium.

"This morning at 1115 hours, this unit engaged a group of eight Red Mutant Zoids being controlled by a group of bandits. The enemy units were all destroyed with our unit not taking a single casualty, or indeed any heavy damage." She paused before continuing. "In spite of a few careless mistakes made by some of the pilots, the operation was a success." She glared briefly at Bekka, who seemed to shrink back into her chair. "In all, eight enemy Zoids were destroyed by our unit. Corporals Cade and Furman accounted for two, as did I. Sergent Black accounted for two." Bob looked notably disappointed.

"Interrogation of a captured pilot, as well as information gathered from the destroyed Zoids has revealed several facts to us." She continued. "The group we destroyed today is a small part of a larger group. This band of Mutants operates out of a lair located in a derelict Whale King." A holographic map of the area appeared, and zoomed in on one box canyon. "The Whale King is believed to be half-buried at the end of this canyon." The map went down to a ground-level pan around the area. "As you can see, the only entrance to the canyon is through this narrow pass."

"It looks like a very easily defendable location." Matt commented. "The sort of place where one could easily set up an ambush."

"So far these 'mutants' haven't shown that degree of coordination or prior planning." Sel replied. "However, it is still possible. Therefore, I will be asking for a volunteer to perform a recon run beforehand."

Bob immediately put his hand up. "I'm willing to undertake this operation, captain." He said, overly enthusiastic.

"Somebody's got something to prove." Alex muttered. Bekka nodded.

"Thank you, Corporal Kahm." She said. Bob looked smug. "Now it appears that the Whale King's systems are no longer functional. However, the enemy do have an estimated dozen Zoids remaining, primarily of the same types as we encountered today. So while the enemy may have us outnumbered, we will still have a considerable edge in firepower. Furthermore, the lie of the land would negate any mobility advantage they may have by forcing them to attack us head on in a relatively concentrated space. Most of their Zoids cannot withstand even a singe volley from our heavy weapons."

The holographic display bought up rotating images of the Darkhorn, Deadborder and Heldigunner, and comparisons to the various red mutant Zoids to illustrate her last point.

"We will be deploying at 0500 hours tomorrow morning, so I want you all ready for duty by 0400. Dismissed."

-----

Sean had to admit that there was something "just not right" about the blonde girl standing in front of him. Maybe it was the insane grin that was spread across her face that made her look like she was ready to bite. Maybe it was the rather scary looking pale green eyes that were glaring straight at him. Or maybe it was the fact that he was hanging upside down in front of her.

"How you doing?" she asked in a nice, almost polite way. "Comfortable?"

"Uuuurrgggg..." he replied. All the blood was going to his head. That and the hot sun wasn't doing him any favours. Behind the scarey woman, the one-eyed woman from before was talking to a long-haired man, who was holding a clipboard and drawing.

"Uuuurrgggg?" The blonde replied. "No, no idea. Sandra?"

"None at all" The one-eyed woman replied. "Rick?"

He looked up from his clipboard. "Sorry, no." he answered, then went back to his work.

"Wrong answer" She said, and smiled in an oh-so-cute and at the same time strangely disturbing way. "Try again."

Sean sweated. He knew that he couldn't take too much more of this and he suspected that the blonde was about to get violent. At the same time, he knew that if he doublecrossed Grant, he knew that he'd die, probably in a slow, agonising and very painful way.

The blonde had wandered off, as if she was looking for something. The other two continued to talk to each other, apparently blissfully unaware of his situation. He couldn't see the other survivors from the gang, but he suspected they were all glad they weren't him. After a few minutes, the blonde returned. She was stripping branches from a stick.

"I found this down at your campsite. I suspect it was firewood." She waved around the rather thick, now completely stripped stick. "I call him Mr Stick. Do you want to talk to him?"

Sean screamed. Loudly.

-----

Desert

1700 hours

The Gustav had trundled off back to the town with its supply of prisoners and more Zoid junk. Rick had wondered what they were going to do with it all. Maybe someone was in the market for the wreckage of all those low-grade mutants. Perhaps a desperate Darth or something. Hmm... now that could be an idea. "A dropout Darth who buys Zoid salvage..." he muttered, and scribbled it on his notes.

Vic was standing around while Sandra was drawing something in the sand with Mr Stick. He walked over to the two of them. "What you got there?"

"Map" Sandra replied. "I've taken what those tools said about their defences and setup, and tried to figure out what we can do about it."

"He was very talkative" Vic added. "And that was before I hit him."

"I'm surprised he gave all that up without you even hitting him." Rick added, surprised.

"Implied violence is always a better threat then the real thing." Vic replied. "But not nearly as fun."

"Riiiiight." Rick said, slowly edging away from her. "Okaaaaaaaaay." Moving over to Sandra to put her between himself and Vic, he peered over her shoulder. "So you all done?"

"Pretty much." Sandra replied. "This is a rough layout of the bad guys' base camp. They hang out in a wrecked Whale King that's at the end of a box canyon." She pointed to the map she'd drawn on the ground. "Now the only way in is through a narrow pass located here."

"Perfect ambush" Vic said.

"Indeed." Sandra replied. "So I've figured a way we could get through." She pulled out a small stone, a bottle cap and a nut from one of the wrecked Zoids. "The stone is Rick, I'm the bottle cap and Vic is the nut."

Rick looked at her. "As if it wasn't obvious" she replied.

Sandra placed the three items along the ridges above the canyon. "Here's what we do. The three of us use the big thing we have - speed and agility - to get to the edge of the canyon. We fire down from there and take out anything that's lurking and expecting us to come through the canyon rather than over it. Rick, you will handle indiscriminate property damage, while Vic looks after precision shooting."

"I can do that." Rick replied. "My Woof's big guns should be able to take out most of what they use in a couple of shots."

"Big gun makes little Zoids go bang. Me can do." Vic added.

"Right." Sandra continued. "Once we've whittled down their front guard, we can hop down into the canyon. I know the pair of you are good enough pilots in agile enough Zoids to do this. Then we polish off any tools who have survived the first wave, call our ride and get our pay."

Rick studied the layout. "And what kind of opposition are we going up against?"

"Buncha boofheads in small Zoids." Sandra replied. "Same sort of stuff as we've whacked so far. Problem is that our long haired friend over there claims they have at least a dozen left. Possibly more."

Rick whistled. "Four to one odds... not too shabby."

"Well our long range firepower is enough to carve through their ranks pretty easily." Sandra replied. "And don't forget, most of them are unwashed, untrained tool fairies in small, effortlessly disposed of Zoids. We've got the advantage of both pilot and equipment quality. The other thing I'm thinking is we attack their base at dawn. The canyon entrance faces to the west. We'll be up there with the sun low behind us, which is bound to not do their eyes any favours."

"Cool." Rick replied. "So we ride out of the sun, zap the bad guys, go home and buy beers." He grinned. "I can live with that. But there is one question."

"What?" Sandra asked.

"Why do I always have to be the stone?" He replied.

"...what?"

"I'm always the stone." Rick continued. "Can't I be the bottlecap for once?"

-----

Sean watched the three of them argue in the distance. Well, today was about the worst day of his life, he thought. Rescued from prison, shouted at, shot up, captured again, tortured, hung upside down and psychologically bullied. And now he was probably going back to the same prison he'd been rescued from less than twelve hours ago. Why did all the bad things happen to the cool guys like him, he wondered.

"I hope they don't put you in the same cell as me, fer yer sake." Horace growled from behind him. "Cause if they do, I'm gonna make yer pay fer doublecrossn' the boss like that. I'm gonna make yer squeal."

"Don't worry about it, dood." Sean replied, strangely casually replied. "I kinda lied about what we got back at the base." He smiled as much as he could, given the circumstances. "They don't know nuffink about the gate guards or the Boss's ride or anything. Those guys are gonna walk straight into it."

Horace snorted. "Hey, maybe they'll run right into those guys we fought earlier. Wouldn't that be a laugh?"

"Yeah, dood." Sean sniggered. "Little miss psycho and her pals run into those dark guys... man, I don't know who deserves it more."

-----

High above the battlefield, a lone Z-Ray flew overhead, its pilot taking note of the wrecked Zoids and their attackers. After gathering what the pilot felt was enough information, it dropped down to ground level, skimming along at an altitude of only a few meters. Coming up on a box canyon, it skimmed into the canyon, disappearing inside the cavernous mountain of the wrecked Whale King at one end.

-----

Whale King _Dark Star_

Above the wastelands

0455 hours

Unless they were under attack or at war, the _Dark Star's _bridge would normally be maintained by only a skeleton crew at this time of morning. This particular morning, however, everyone member of the crew, Zoid pilots included were gathered on the bridge. All but a skeleton crew were currently gathered, facing Sel who stood with her back to the ships bow, wearing her full dress uniform.

"Today we will engage our enemies in battle." She began, speaking solemnly. "Today, we, the warriors of the Blackstar Expeditionary Force will be bloodied against our foes." She looked over the assembled crew. Her pilots were in the front row. Their heads were bowed, but she could feel their gazes upon her. "Before this battle, we remember those who came before us. We remember the world we lost, and those lost with it. We remember those who gave their lives to bring us to the safety of this new world, and those who gave their lives to give us a home here." She paused. "We honour their memories while we commit ourselves to our future, the great day when we can return to our one true home." Behind her, the sun rose over the horizon, flooding the Whale King's bridge with light. "We remember."

"We remember" the assembled crew replied.

-----

Sel opened her eyes. Her face glared back at her in the small mirror inside her locker, her dark eyes framed by the two pairs of blood-red lines painted on her cheeks. A mark of honour. A mark of a true warrior, she thought. There is no turning back now.

Collecting her helmet under her arm, she confidently strode out into the Darkstar's cavernous hanger bay. Pausing only for one last look back at her troops, she climbed into the Darkhorn's cockpit. Securing the helmet and her own connections, she felt the thrill of the power as her mind was connected to her Zoid's.

There was a gentle "thud" as the Whale King shook upon touchdown. Ahead of her, the massive doors opened, flooding the bay with the early dawn light.

"Move out."


	5. Hip Deep in Mutants

Chris Canyon, The Wastelands

0530 hours

The five Zoids paused on the lip of the Canyon. On either side, the huge rock walls rose above them, while the sun slowly rose behind them. Bob sat in his Heldigunner's cockpit, waiting for the order from his commander to advance.

"A pity we couldn't go up there." Alex commented, looking at the canyon walls. "I could do some major damage from up there."

"The rock walls are too steep for our Zoids to negotiate." Matt replied. "We'd need small, long legged and agile ones to get up there. And that rock's to solid for your Zoid to go through"

"Yeah... but..." He sighed. "It'd be nice."

"Silence you two." Sel's stern voice came over the communicator. "Kahm, move in."

"Yes, captain!" Bob replied. His Heldigunner cautiously advanced down the canyon, its head swaying left and right to visually scan for enemies, while its sensors scanned the area. Bob knew it was dangerous work, which was why he had volunteered to do it. Volunteering for this kind of duty was the sort of thing that would make him look good in the eyes of Captain Magyari and, more importantly, her superiors. Inside, he was still seething about not being given the role of carrying the heavy cannon. He felt that he was overdue for some recognition, and this mission would prove what he was capable of. It bothered him that Senior and Cade got all the good assignments, while he languished. Why him? He followed all the regulations precisely, while those two... well, they rarely even wore the full uniform. It just wasn't fair.

His Heldigunner's sensors picked something up. A small heat source, further up the canyon walls. He checked it, but it seemed to be nothing, no recognisable shape and far to small to be a Zoid. Probably a stupid bird or some dumb animal, or a glitch in his Zoid's sensors. Great. That's just what he needed. A defective Zoid.

He stopped at the curve that marked the halfway point of the canyon. If he advanced any further, they'd loose visual contact with him. As per the plan, he turned his Zoid around, signalling with the Heldigunner's tail to advance.

-----

"He's signalling all clear, captain." Matt's voice came over the communicator.

"All units, move in." Sel ordered. Her Darkhorn advanced, the two Heldigunners following immediately behind it and the Deadborder at the back. She cautiously watched the cliffs as her Zoid advanced. Bob had signalled the all clear, but it just didn't seem right to her.

Her Darkhorn's sensor's bleeped as she stopped the Zoid next to Bob's Heldigunners. Scanning the sensors, she saw numerous small heat sources scattered across the canyon walls. Odd... They couldn't be Zoids... could they? She opened a secure channel to Bob. "Did you detect anything on your sweep. Anything at all?"

"One small heat source on the cliff, captain." He replied. "But I thought it was too small to be a Zoid."

Sel didn't reply. Instead, her Zoid shook its massive head, to indicate silence. She swung the Darkhorn's massive weapons assembly upwards to point at the source. Abruptly, it moved away. She readjusted the weapons to target its new location, and it moved again. The Heldigunners and Deadborder turned their heads to look up at the canyon walls. Sel could now see several of the sources moving. She focused on the one she had targeted earlier, and then fired the heavy beam cannon.

The beam shot out from the cannon, hitting a seemingly bare chunk of rock on the cliff wall. Instead of a shower of rock, it revealed a single, small, cat-shaped Zoid, staggered by the impact and trying to maintain its balance, its side ripped open and belching thick black smoke.

"Ambush!" Across the top of the cliffs, the heat sources bloomed as they resolved themselves into other Zoids, the same as the damaged one. Helcats, small, fast stealth Zoids. "All units, fall back!" Sel ordered. Matt turned the Deadborder around, only to be confronted by a trio of red and silver snake-like Zoids.

"Captain, we have a squad of Znakes behind us!" He shouted.

"And in front" Bob added, slowly backing away from the group that had emerged out of the earth in front of him. The ground erupted again, revealing a pair of small, beetle like Zoids. "And a pair of Scarabs."

"What do we do?" Bekka asked, her voice tinged with fear. "They're all around us!"

Sel examined the situation. The opponents were smaller and lighter, with far less armour and firepower then they had. On the other hand, they were faster, more agile, and far outnumbered them. And they were surrounded.

"We fight."

-----

Rick pushed his Command Wolf's throttle all the way open, pushing the Zoid to its maximum speed. The Shield Liger was sprinting along to his right, and the Gunsniper was leading the Trio. He checked the map again. Nearly there...

Their plan had called for them to be there at the crack of dawn, and attack with the sun at their backs. But instead, both he and Sandra had somehow managed to oversleep. It had not been a pleasant sight, to wake up and see Vic looming over him, an angry look on his face. Sandra had also proven to be rather hard to rouse, just to make things even more difficult.

Now they were behind schedule and trying to make up time. If they attacked too late, they would loose the advantage of having the sun behind them. And if they waited for tomorrow, the bad guys would be ready for them, or would move on.

Suddenly, the Gunsniper stopped. Rick and Sandra both stopped their Zoids. "What's up, Vic?" Rick asked.

"Look." The Gunsniper pointed towards the horizon. There was a plume of black smoke rising in the distance. "It's the canyon."

"Someone else is on to our baddies." Rick said.

"Could it be..." Sandra muttered.

"What?" Rick asked.

"The guys who destroyed those Reds yesterday." Sandra said. "I'm just wondering if that's them attacking the reds, or if it's someone else."

"Could be." Vic said. "Sensor pings. Many. In canyon."

The Liger and Command wolf looked at each other. "Let's go." Rick and Sandra both said.

-----

Sel thumbed the trigger for her Beam Gattling, firing a burst at a fast moving Helcat. The bullets followed the running Zoid, ripping into its flanks and sending it crashing down off the cliff, landing in a heap on the canyon floor. "How are we doing here?" she shouted over the comm., any pretence of radio silence abandoned.

"Not too good." Matt replied as he fired. While his Deadborder was holding its own and had destroyed several smaller Zoids, the damage was piling up. It would be only a matter of time before one of them scored a crippling hit on him.

"My Zoid has severe leg damage, captain." Bob replied. "My mobility is-"

"Can you fire?" Sel cut him off.

"Yes cap-"he began.

"Then keep doing it." She finished. "Cade, Senior, how are you?"

"Battered, but ok" Bekka replied.

"Likewise" Alex added. The two of them were in the middle of the formation, and had drawn the least fire.

"Then keep going. They've got to run out sooner or later." Sel shouted. Her Darkhorn was in a similar state. It hadn't suffered anything beyond armour damage as yet, but it was only a matter of time now. Then her sensors beeped again. Numerous small targets, advancing through the canyon. Great more of them.

"Sel! To your left!" Bekka shouted. Sel glanced to the left to see a fresh Znakes rearing up above her cockpit, ready to fire. Before either it or she could react, a shot tore through its head, blowing it apart. The headless wreck waved for a second, then keeled over.

"Thanks, Bekka." Sel said.

"But I didn't..." she replied, followed by the booming sound of weapons fire.

"What?" She turned around. On top of the cliff, silhouetted against the sun, was a Gunsniper, its weapon tail pointed down into the canyon. Next to it was a Command Wolf equipped with a pair of large cannons, and some sort of Liger, or maybe a Sabre Tiger. The Gunsniper fired again, sending another Znakes reeling, while the Command Wolf fired on another sight unseen Zoid.

"Who are they, captain?" Matt asked.

"I don't know." Sel replied. "But right now, if they're on my side, I don't care."

The Liger, a Shield Liger, she noted, leapt down the cliff, leaping on a Scarab that was advancing on Bob's damaged Heldigunner. The Scarab crumpled under the weight of the larger Zoid, which then finished it off with a paw strike. The blue Zoid roared, then turned to face the oncoming enemies.

A small vid window appeared on the Darkhorn's comms panel, showing a scarred, one-eyed woman. "I don't know who you are." The woman began. "But for the moment, it looks like we're on the same side." The Liger's top-mounted cannons deployed, firing on a Helcat that had just emerged around the corner.

"Right." Sel replied. "And thanks." The vid window closed, then Sel opened a link to the rest of her squad. "Everyone, for the moment, the Shield Liger, Command Wolf and Gunsniper are our allies."

"But captain, what if they find out-"Bob began, and then was cut off.

"Right now, I don't care." Sel replied.

-----

It was them, Sandra thought. I mean, its possible there is some other bunch with those particular Zoids wandering around and picking fights with the Mutant Reds, but I doubt it.

She had been surprised by the appearance of the Darkhorn pilot. Dark skin, dark eyes, dark hair, strict looking uniform and scary facepaint. She'd have to look into it.

"How are you two doing?" She shouted over the com between shots.

"Looking good for the next few minutes." Rick replied, the sound of a shot echoing in the background.

"I bagged lots. Lost count." Vic said, monotone. "Bang." Another shot.

"Right. And them?"

"Well... that's the prob." Rick said. "Between us and them, we've picked all the Hellkittys off the cliffs and most of the Znakes and Scarabs that have popped out of the ground."

"And?" Sandra said.

"Well, you know that Whale King they use as their base?" Rick began. "I can see it from here. There's baddies pouring out the front door, and coming at us."

"That little hairy tool." Sandra said. "If I catch him, I'm going to rip his bedflute off and shove it right up his date..." A pair of hits bounced off the Liger's shield. She turned towards the guilty party, a Tarantulon that had just emerged from around the bend. "Sorry, boy." She dropped the shield, then fired the Liger's top-mounted cannons. The spider-like Zoid was hit, one of its legs blasted clean from the body. Rather than suffer further damage, the pilot withdrew his machine further up the canyon.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do." Sandra shouted into the comm. "Rick, Vic, I want the pair of you to start shooting down into the main part of the canyon. Gloop anything that comes out of the Whale King."

"Gotcha." Rick replied.

"This sounds fun." Vic added.

"You in the Deadborder, and you with the Heldy with the BFG." She gave them a second to respond. "I want you to fire at the mouth of the canyon. Accuracy's not as important as just hitting. If we can dissuade them from coming to us, its good. If we can tool up a couple of them, its even better." The Deadborder and Heldigunner looked at her, then began firing.

She opened a secure channel to the Darkhorn. "Sorry to undercut you, but I may be able to get us all out of this."

"Thanks" the woman replied.

"Of course, I've got a few thinks to ask you if we get out of here." Sandra smiled. 'But for now, I'm gonna try something stupid that might just work. I'm going to advance down the canyon with my shield up. It should be enough to stop anything they can throw at us. Well, unless they've got a Genosaur hidden up their date or something. I want the rest of you to follow me. When we get to the end of the canyon, we're probably going to run headlong into a horde of reds. You ready?"

"Yes." She said.

"I know it's a stupid plan, but it's the best one I can think of." She knew that running away wasn't an option. The Darkhorn. Deadborder and Heldigunner were far slower then most of the Red Mutants, and that was without accounting for the damaged Heldigunner. All they could do is advance and hope that sheer firepower would win out.

-----

Grant surveyed the battle from the bridge of the wrecked Whale King. Even though he couldn't see the engagement in the canyon, he could tell it wasn't going well. The Command Wolf and Gunsniper had turned their attention towards the Zoids in the valley, which indicated that his advance guard had been wiped out. Those were his best pilots in some of his best machines too. Now the Wolf and Sniper were picking off his troops, while it looked like something was shelling his troops from the canyon. Probably the Deadborder, he thought.

The situation looked grim. They had come for him, probably to take him back. His plan was perfect... he just hadn't foreseen those three appearing and rescuing the others. And now he was doomed. Trapped in this canyon with no way out. He could either let them take him, or fight his way out.

No choice. He turned to a technician. "Have my personal Zoid readied. I will take them on myself."

The tech gulped nervously. "Ye-yes sir."

"And contact the Red Wings. Tell them I may need their services." He stormed from the bridge down to the Zoid hanger. They would not take him, he swore to himself. Even if I have to fight to the last man.

-----

Bang. A Slitherzoid bucked and rolled onto its side. The view from the scope spun around, looking for a new target. There. A Hellrunner. Fast target practice. Tricky. Take the shot, he's convenient. Bang. A gout of flame erupted from the Zoid's side as it pitched over.

Vic loved this. It was what she liked to call a "Target rich environment." Lots of bad guys. She could hunt and kill all day without running out of things to kill. She could stay here all day, shooting the baddies.

A pair of explosions rocked her Gunsniper. Near misses, but still close enough to get her attention. A Slime had deployed its cannons, and had drawn a bead on her. She turned towards it and fired. Bang. A huge chunk of its shell ripped off, exposing internal mechanisms but not crippling the Zoid. She'd missed. Stupid Snail. She lined up another shot, but before she could fire, the Slime was hit by pair of blasts, crippling its cannons. She knew where the shots had come from, Rick's Command Wolf. Stupid wolf, stealing her kill.

The Slime limped away, its cannons wrecked. Seeing that it was no threat, Vic looked for something else. A Tarantulon skittered on by. Drawing a bead, she fired. Bang. The spider-like Zoid collapsed on its side, an explosion sending chunks of debris flying. Too easy. Funny looking too. She could say here all day, killing Reds. That sounded fun... kill reds... She grinned to herself, as she searched for her next target.

Something caught her eye. A literal wall of red. She zoomed back. A red Mammoth. A literal giant amongst the smaller Reds. A big, juicy, happy trophy... She squeezed the trigger.

Click.

Not Click. Click, the one who haunted her nightmares. Click, her worst enemy. Click, the one who she lived in mortal fear of. Why did Click come to her now? Why?

She had gone from the hunter to the hunted. In this situation, her numerous extra weapons were of little use, being designed all for close-range combat. She turned the Gunsniper around, bringing herself back to the normal piloting position. If the red killing was to continue, she'd have to get down there with them.

"Rick, I'm out." She said. "Going down to fight mutants. Stay."

"Wha?" Rick replied between volleys.

Before he could reply, her Zoid had hopped off the side of the cliff, leaping down to a lower level. Landing, she looked around. There was the Mammoth. Perfect.

Before she could fire, the Mammoth turned towards her and fired. The shots carved chunks out of the cliff, weakening the platform she was standing on. The Gunsniper slipped, then skidded down to the canyon floor.

"Oops." She muttered as her Zoid staggered to her feet. She was now down there, amongst the reds, with the Mammoth bearing down on her.

-----

The Hilbit Vulcan fired a few rounds into a Zatton, then stopped, the motor whirring as it wound down. Sel checked the readouts; it was overheating and had shut down before it burnt our. Looking ahead, she saw the wounded Zatton stagger, then fall. At least she'd gotten something out of the last few shots.

Ahead of her, the Shield Liger pounced on an unweary Zunder, batting the Mutant to the ground, before swiping a large chunk out of its side with the claws. The Zunder stopped moving, either through system damage or its pilot deciding that it wasn't worth fighting back any more.

Sel radioed the Shield Liger pilot. "How are you doing?"

The Liger pilot appeared on the screen. Her single eye, scars and messy hair gave Sel the impression of a battle-hardened warrior. Right now, Sel noted, she was looking rather worn. Or maybe she always looked like that. "Running low on ammo, ran out of missiles long ago, armours flaking and I feel like a big pile of carpet, both otherwise good. You?"

"My beam gattling has shut down and my armour is worn, otherwise not too bad." Sel replied. "My men are all in a similar state."

The Liger leapt off the Zunder, advancing to the end of the Canyon. Sel opened up the Darkhorn's throttle, pushing past the downed Zatton, following the Liger. "All units, move in." She signalled to her squad. Matt, Alex, cease support fire. Bob, stay at the rear." She cut off any smart reply Bob may have made as the Darkhorn rounded the corner into the valley.

The Valley was dominated by the enormous hulk of a Whale King at the far end. The hulks of numerous Red Zoids were scattered across the valley floor, while still more were gathered around the enormous form of a Red Mammoth. In front of the Mammoth was a single Gunsniper, presumably the same one that had saved her before. It was slowly backing off from the Mammoth, snarling at it. Behind the Mammoth, a single Slime was firing up at the cliff, keeping the Command Wolf pinned down.

"Any ideas?" Sel asked.

"One." The Liger pilot replied. "Its pretty risky, borders on downright stupid and has a good chance of getting us killed. But if it doesn't, we'll be able to save her life."

"Good." Sel replied. "Let's do it then."

"Right. I run distraction, you attack. Get whatever you have available to back us up." The Liger ran towards the Mammoth, shield up.

"All units." Sel began. "I am going in. Provide cover fire for me."

The Liger leapt between the Mammoth and the Gunsniper, snarling at the larger Zoid. In response, the Mammoth bought its trunk down on the Liger's shield, which stopped it dead. The Gunsniper ran out from behind the Liger, and fired on the Slime with its battery of side-mounted guns, ripping huge chunks out of the Slime's body.

Sel Charged forward, simply ploughing into an unsuspecting Zatton. No sooner had the Zoid hit the ground had she opened fire on a Slitherzoid that had crawled out from behind the Mammoth, Her Beam cannon tearing a chunk out of its side. Damaged but not out, the Slitherzoid fired back with its four front cannons, ripping armour from her flank. The Zoids computer reported that the armour on the right rear leg was all but gone. A few more hits there would cripple her.

A pair of shots came down from the top of the cliff, hitting the damaged Slither, ripping the wheel from one side. The Command Wolf, no longer pinned down by enemy fire, advanced to the edge of the cliff and fired its massive twin cannons again, damaging another Slitherzoid.

The Liger leapt to the side of the Mammoth, dropping its shield momentarily to fire at the larger Zoid's side. The shots didn't seem to do much beyond annoy it. The mammoth turned to face the Liger, turning its trunk-mounted gun at the smaller Zoid before firing. The shots hit the Liger's back, ripping out some armour.

While it was distracted, the Gunsniper looped around to the Mammoth's other side, firing a volley from its right-side platform, ripping armour and structure from the larger Zoid's left foreleg. The Mammoth turned back and fired, hitting the Gunsniper's right leg, knocking it over. Ignoring the Liger for the moment, it stalked towards the smaller Zoid.

Sel Charged the Darkhorn forward, only to be hit in the side. Her monitor showed that armour the left rear leg had been pierced, leaving it as imperilled as the right. Turning to the source of the attack, she saw a lone Hellrunner, its cannon smoking. Swivelling the turret towards it, she fired, the smaller Zoid running away from the shot. "Damn you!" She shouted as she fired again, the target still evading her.

Realising what she was doing, she turned back to the Mammoth, only to see the Liger leap out between it and the crippled Gunsniper. The Liger fired the twin guns on its back, the shots seemingly not affecting the Mammoth. In return, the larger Zoid bought its trunk down on the Liger's cockpit, smashing the canopy open and knocking the Zoid to its side.

-----

Grant grinned as he looked down at the Gunsniper and Shield Liger lying crippled at his Zoid's feet. It was some sort of victory, he thought. He could take these two Zoids and add them to his army. Even though he had lost much of his forces today, he wouldn't walk away completely empty handed.

A hit to his Mammoth's side drew his attention. The Darkhorn was charging at him, firing its weapons like the pilot was insane. A Hellrunner leapt out in front of it, only to be battered aside. No matter. He'd cripple this one too, and add it to his forces. Bringing all the Mammoth's weapons to bear, he fired at it. The Horn swerved at the last second, taking the hit on its right rear leg. The Darkhon skidded, sliding on its side before coming to a halt. Too easy.

That would teach them, he thought. They wouldn't get him now. His remaining troops gathered around his Mammoth, confident in victory.

Ahead of him, a single Zoid rounded the corner and stepped into the valley. A tall, black and green Tyrannosaur type, bristling with weapons, numerous tubes sprouting from its head and neck with its eyes almost glowing. "Leave her alone." The pilot broadcast over his Zoid's speakers. "Surrender now, and I will spare you." As if to emphasise his point, the Zoid roared.

"Make me." Grant replied.

-----

Matt levelled the Deadborder's weapons array at the smaller Zoids around the Mammoth. Either inspired or bullied by their leader, the remaining smaller Reds charged forwards. The targeting system locked on to two of them leading the charge, a Slitherzoid and Serpent. Matt squeezed the triggers. The massive cannons fired, ripping the Serpent apart and sending the Slitherzoid reeling.

"I will not repeat myself." He said. "Leave her alone."

"Go on!" the Mammoth pilot shouted over his speakers. "Attack him!" Around him, the smaller reds backed away, their Zoids cowering, their heads lowered. "Attack him now!" The Mammoth pilot repeated. "You outnumber him!"

A lone Hellrunner, the same one Sel had missed earlier and the last one standing, broke and ran. The damaged Slitherzoid, after wriggling back to an upright position, also crawled away. "Come back here, you cowards!" the Mammoth pilot shouted.

"Your men have deserted you." Matt said. "Surrender now."

"You'll never take me alive!" the Mammoth pilot replied. His Zoid charged forward, trumpeting as it went.

Matt could feel the Deadborder's excitement at the thought of the fight as he pushed it forward. He fired the twin back cannons, staggering the Mammoth as huge chunks were torn from its forward structure. The secondary cannons followed up on the first attacks, shredding more armour and tearing away the right ear. The Mammoth replied with its various small weapons, shredding armour across the Deadborder's body.

Ignoring the various warning lights that came on across the Zoid's cockpit, Matt continued forward. "You are a criminal." He continued. "A coward and a bully who does not deserve the Zoid he is piloting." The Mammoth shook under the attacks, its right foreleg near collapse. "You prey upon the weak. You are no warrior, only a common thug." The Mammoth shuddered again, swaying on its feet.

"I will not be beaten by you!" The Mammoth pilot shouted, fighting to keep his Zoid upright. "Attack him! Attack!" he shouted at the small group of Red survivors, who were huddling at the back of the valley.

Roaring, the Deadborder grabbed the Mammoth's flanks, then sunk its teeth into the hull. Sparks flew as the metal teeth tore through the Mammoth's armour and into the structure below. Pulling its head back, the Deadborder tore a huge chunk of structure with it before throwing it aside. The Mammoth staggered, swayed and then collapsed. The Deadboarder stood over it, and roared.

-----

Up on the cliff, Rick watched from the cockpit of his Command Wolf. He'd been trying to draw a bead on the Mammoth, but with Sandra, Vic and the Darkhorn down there it had been hard to get a good shot. Then the Deadborder had come along and ripped the Mammoth apart. Now it was standing over its kill, roaring.

"Wow" he said, and then reached for his sketchpad.

-----

Grant ripped the useless neurohelmet from his head. Wiping his forehead, he felt something wet. It was blood. His own. Around him, the cockpit of his Mammoth was a wreck. Lying on its side, it was a mass of shattered monitors, cracked canopy and sparking circuit boards. Looking up, he saw the massive shape of the Deadborder looming over him.

His communicator, surprisingly intact, crackled to life. "Understand this" the voice on the communicator said. It was the Deadborder pilot. "The pilot of that Darkhorn has the makings of a great person. She is brave, selfless and determined, yet, unlike you, remains a human being. I will give my life to protect her." The Zoid loomed over the cockpit. "If you are still alive in there, consider yourself to be extremely lucky."

Grant decided not to reply. Acting dead for now and hoping they went away and left him alone was the best thing to do. He may be beaten for now, but at least he was alive.

The small communicator he wore on his pilot suit bleeped. "Grant, this is Red Wing. You there?" A female voice began. Grant grinned to himself. Maybe he wasn't beaten after all.

-----

Sel released her safety harness and opened the cockpit. The valley resembled a scene from hell. A few red Zoids were cowering near the wrecked Whale King at the end of the canyon, trying to look as inconspicuous as the could. Numerous other Zoids were lying around the valley, all destroyed or frozen out and showing severe abuse. The Gunsniper stood over the downed Shield Liger, its leg a mess. A roar filled the air. Turning towards the source, she saw Matt's battle-scarred Deadborder standing over the carcass of the Mammoth, roaring.

"I've never seen it like that before..." she muttered. Through numerous mock battles and exercises and the one live battle, the Deadborder had never acted so primal, so vicious so... alive...

She shook herself and remembered what she was doing. Leaping out from the Darkhorn cockpit, she ran over to the downed Shield Liger. Dodging pieces of burning debris, craters, shell casings and other wreckage, she leapt up to the Liger's cockpit. As she peered over the edge of the cockpit, she felt the pressure of a gun barrel against her head.

Looking up, she saw a short, muscular, blonde woman standing on the Liger's cockpit. She had disturbing, pale green eyes, a worrying grin and a pistol to Sel's head. "Scary facepaint and a black uniform" the woman began. "Evil look."

"I..." Sel was at a loss for words here. "I'm here to help."

The blonde pulled back the pistol. "Be quick. Try anything... bang. Just another statistic."

Sel checked on the Liger's pilot. She was alive, but unconscious and bleeding from numerous cuts across her body. She grabbed the communicator. "Magyari to Dark Star. We need immediate medivac at grid reference..." she checked her wrist computer. "F7U3M."

Turning around, the blonde woman stared at her. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Sel looked at her and then at the Deadborder. "So do I."


	6. Freaky Kind of Angels

Dark Continent

1830 hours local

For the millionth time in the last few months, Frank Templeton wished that he was home. He had wanted it so many times in the last few months, but now more then ever.

His tiny Legz darted out from behind a rock, skittering in a fast, zigzag pattern to avoid enemy fire before darting behind the next piece of cover he could find. Crouching the Zoid down, he hid it as far behind the outcropping as he could. Looking up, he saw a pair of shadows pass overhead. He watched the owners of the shadows pass overhead, then come around, looking for him.

For probably the millionth time today, he also wished he had something other than the Legz. While its speed, agility and anonymity were useful, the limits of its frame were sticking in his mind. Though massively updated over the Gargantulus, it was still a relatively primitive Zoid. Like many early Zoids, it had few weapons and was virtually unarmoured. If attacked, its best defence was to run and hide, and hope that its opponent could't fly. Of course, Frank thought, that's why he was being chased by Reddlers.

The two black dragon Zoids around., and passed over him again. With them behind him and heading in the opposite direction, Frank chanced another dash from rock to rock. It was risky, but he also knew that he had to do it. The information he was carrying was vital and had to be delivered. The only problem was that he suspected his enemies knew that as well, and were not going to give up now.

He reflected on the irony of the situation. Here he was, a master spy who had nearly pulled off one of the greatest espionage coups in history. His cover had been blown when he was on the verge of completing his operation by a series of coincidences and stupid mistakes. And now he was on the run.

The Legz dashed behind another rock and crouched down, the small Zoid sharing Frank's sense of relief at evading destruction for a little longer. He checked the data disk stowed in the small storage pouch on the side of the cockpit. Still intact. Good. The information it contained was vital. Now if only he could live long enough to deliver it.

-----

Chris Canyon, the Wastelands

0630 hours

The massive, grey Whale King hovered over the valley, blotting out the rising sun. Descending slowly into the valley, it landed facing its wrecked compatriot. No sooner had the massive, jaw-like front ramp opened then a small medivac vehicle, painted light grey, had driven out from the ship. Darting through the debris, it pulled up next to the downed Liger.

Under the careful watch of Sel and the scary blonde Gunsniper pilot (Who Sel had since learned was called Vic), the medics removed the Shield Liger's pilot (Who had been identified as Sandra) and loaded her in. The vehicle sped back into the Whale King, where she would be sent to the emergency room.

"This had better work." Vic muttered. "For your sake."

Sel chose not to look at her. "We have very good medics and facilities." She crossed her arms, and continued as if trying to reassure herself. "They will look after her." Vic said nothing. Sel was glad, she had other problems to deal with. Walking slowly towards her wounded Darkhorn, she noted Bob running towards her, clearly angry.

He stopped in front of her, and saluted. "Captain, with all due respect, I must protest your actions." He said, trying his best not to sound tired. "What you are doing, with taking that woman onto our transport, borders on treason."

"No, it Deadborders on it." Vic added, having walked up behind the pair of them. She sniggered and walked past.

Sel took advantage of the perplexed look on Bob's face to reply. "That warrior" She emphasised the word to him. "And her men were what saved our lives, corporal Kahm" She paused to let that sink in. "If they had not arrived, we would likely all be dead, our Zoids captured by the enemy and our mission a failure. And you understand what that means."

"yes, but-"Bob began to reply, but was cut off by her.

"Furthermore, Corporal, we would not have been in this situation if you had done your job properly." She continued.

"Captain, I surveyed the canyon and found nothing unusual" Bob replied.

"What you found was a small heat source on the cliff." Sel stated. "A small heat source that was, in fact, a concealed enemy Zoid. You signalled that the canyon was clear, and thus lead us into an ambush." She paused to let it sink in. "What you should have done was signalled that you had detected something. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"No, captain." He quietly replied.

Sel pressed a few buttons on her wrist computer. "I have made a note of this in your permanent record, Corporal Kahm. I am also recommending that you are reassigned to a reserve unit when we return home."

Bob was clearly stunned. He'd worked hard to get into this most prestigious position. To be reassigned to a reserve unit, while not a demotion, would be a serious setback for his career. "Yes, captain." He muttered.

"Now I want you to work with Cade and Senior to round up the surviving enemy pilots." She glanced to the small group of Red Zoids huddling at the end of the valley. "For the moment, we are letting the remaining enemy Zoids go. I doubt any of them will want to attack us." She glanced up at the Deadborder. It was still standing over the Mammoth's carcass, glaring angrily at the remaining Reds.

Bob saluted and scurried off. Sel stared at the massive black Zoid. Something was definitely not right with that thing, she thought. She'd need to speak to Matt about that when she got the chance.

A grey Gustav transport Zoid rolled out from the Whale King, headed towards the crippled Darkhorn. She radioed the Gustav crew. "I want you to recover the Shield Liger as well, and bring it into the maintenance bay."

"Captain?" the Gustav pilot replied. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, damnit!" Sel shouted back. "I want you to recover it, and be careful with it."

"Yes captain." The Gustav pilot replied.

Sel closed the connection. Damn it, she thought. This was a huge mess. Second battle, her troops had been ambushed and nearly defeated, her squad had been bailed out by a group of passing strangers and then one of them had nearly gotten themselves killed. The honour, the glory and the prestige of the mission had worn on her, and, for the first time, she wished she was home.

-----

Sandra sat up in the hospital bed, her right eye and arm a mess of bandages, thinking. A quiet, almost inaudible knock interrupted her. "Come in" she said, desperate for anything to relive the boredom.

A young woman entered the room. She somewhat resembled Sandra, with long dark hair and thick-rimmed glasses. She was wearing a long, shapeless pale yellow dress, and carrying a large bunch of flowers. "Hi there, Sandra," the woman said.

"Hey, Liz." Sandra replied. "How are you?"

"Uh... good. Thank you." She stammered out. "How are you?"

"As well as can be expected" Sandra said, glancing at her arm.

Liz placed the flowers in an empty vase by the bed, and took a seat. "It's good to see you, Sandra" she said, quietly.

"Thanks for coming, Liz." Sandra said.

"It's the least I could do for you after... "she paused. "After what happened."

"Ah." Sandra said. "Mum and dad didn't want you to come, did they?"

"Well... no" Liz replied, looking down. "Not without them."

"They're still mad at me, right?" Sandra asked.

"Yes."

"Ah." Sandra stated. "And they didn't want you to be here in case your stupid big sister gave you the wrong idea and talked you into doing something stupid. And throwing your life away."

"Well, they didn't say that." Liz replied. "But... they were angry with what you've done. I think they're more upset over what happened to you and..." she trailed off.

"What happened to me was my own stupid, stupid fault, Liz." She said, leaning back on her pillow. "It was my decision, I made the wrong one and I regret it."

Liz said nothing, looking around the room. "So what are you going to do now?"

"Not sure." Sandra replied. "I can't go back to the force, not in this shape." She indicated to the bandages that covered where her right eye had been.

"You should be able to get another job." Liz said. "I mean, most normal jobs wouldn't hold your, ah... your eye against you."

"That's okay, Liz." She looked over at her younger sister, then up at the ceiling. "Thanks for coming. I hate hospitals."

-----

Sandra's eye blinked open. Squinting, she could make out the shape of a dark-skinned and haired woman looming over her, with a bright light behind her. She muttered 'Freaky kind of angel' and closed her eye.

"Are you awake?" a female voice asked. She guessed it was the woman. "Sandra?"

Sandra? That was odd. She opened her eye and looked straight up. "Another unfamiliar ceiling." She sighed, and continued, without turning to face the woman. "Can I ask where the hell I am?"

"The infirmary on board the..." she began. "On board our Whale King."

"A hospital. I hate this place already." Sandra muttered. "You know my name. Can I ask how?"

"One of your, er, colleagues told me." The woman replied.

"How are they?"

"Both are fine, with no injuries apart from bruising. They are currently in board."

"I see." Sandra said, flatly, then turned towards the woman. It was the same one from the Darkhorn, still complete with (smeared) facepaint. "And may I ask who you are? You know who I am and who my associates are, but I have no frelling idea who you are."

"My name is Sel Magyari." She replied. There was a silence that indicated to Sandra that she wasn't getting anything beyond that.

"Well, then, Sel, may I ask what has happened to our Zoids. Last I saw my Shield Liger, it was getting a trunk in the face."

"Your Zoids have been bough on board the Whale King, and are currently undergoing repairs." Sel replied in a very business-like manner. "The Gunsniper and Shield Liger both have suffered some severe systems damage" (Sandra took that it mean "A crook leg and a bashed-in head") "while the Command Wolf is mostly unharmed."

"So you're repairing our Zoids for us, huh?" Sandra said. "I get it. What do you want in return?"

If Sel was surprised by this, she didn't show it. "We would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about us; about our Zoids, our ship and the fact that you saw us. As far as we're concerned, you can claim the full credit for all the Red Mutants destroyed."

"I'll agree with you on one condition." Sandra replied. "We get first picks on the wreckage of the mutants, and get to take whatever we want from them." She paused to think. "Oh, and we get the surviving pilots as well. They're worth bounty money to us."

"Agreed." Sel nodded. Sandra guessed by the speed of her reply that she was expecting that and was happy to give it up. She also suspected that the wreckage of a few scabby reds wasn't worth much to her.

"Right. Not a word." Sandra said.

"And you can rely on your men not to talk?" Sel asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Rick is mostly reliable, and since he's a comic writer I doubt anyone would believe him if he did talk." She thought about something for a minute. "And Vic isn't likely to say anything coherent anyway. So I'd say you're in the clear."

"Thank you, Sandra." Sel replied. 'I appreciate this."

Sandra sat up. "So how long was I out of it, and how hideous were my wounds? I mean, I know I've got a fair deal of scars, but..." What little she remembered from before the attack had shards of canopy going into her body. She suspected that the end result was incredibly hurtful.

"You were only slightly injured, stunned more than anything else." Sel replied.

"Right..." Sandra said, surprised. She distinctly recalled shards of glass and lots of blood.

"The doctor informs me that you're free to leave here at any time." Sel finished.

"Thanks..." She paused for thought. "Well, I guess I'd better get going then. I hate hospitals... no sense in hanging around here."

-----

Not too long out of the Infirmary, Sandra decided to take a little side trip. After a bit of searching, she located a washroom. Ducking in, she pulled off her shirt, and checked herself in the mirror.

The familiar mess of scars that criss-crossed her right arm were there, as were the scars around where her right eye had once been. However, her torso showed no signs of any new scarring. "Did I imagine getting hit by the glass or..." she trailed off when she noticed something else. When she was 14, she'd had her appendix out, which had left her with a small, but noticeable scar. It was no longer there.

"What in the name of Tomy is going on here..." she muttered to herself. Something was decidedly not right here.

-----

"So where are you from?" Rick asked as he stared at the girl in the seat opposite him. Most of the pilots from bot his team and the owners of the Whale King were in the ship's rec room, attached to the canteen. He'd immediately struck up a conversation with the young, cute tattooed Heldigunner pilot, while sketching her.

"Can't say." She replied, and smiled.

"Okay then, what do you do for a living?" He asked. "I mean, are you in the army, or a mercenary or a policeman or what?" He scribbled on his notepad.

"Can't say." She replied, batting her lashes at him in an oh-so-cute way.

"Right..." he scribbled something else, and made a few notes as to her tattoo designs. "So, well, how old are you? Can I even get the basics?"

"Can't say." She said, and grinned. She was clearly enjoying this.

"Well..." Rick replied. "I wanted to put you in the comic I was writing, but I can't really do anything with you unless I know something about you." He tapped the clipboard a few times. "So I guess you're not going to be in it."

"Aww..." She replied. "No fair."

"Well, can I get a few things at least?"

"Right..." She said. "My name's Bekka Cade, I'm 175 cm tall, have brown hair and eyes and I like dancing, movies and indoor sports." Rick sipped his drink. "And I have a tattoo that you can't see at the moment. He almost spat out his drink.

"Well... that's great. Thanks, Bekka." He scribbled some stuff on his pad. "Its definitely enough for me to work from."

"Cool." She said, and smiled. "So when is this comic going to be out?"

"Can't say." Rick said. The pair of them laughed, then Bekka suddenly stopped. "What?" Rick asked.

Bob had strode over to the table. "What are you doing, Cade?" He asked, ignoring Rick.

"She was just talking to me." Rick protested. "No harm in that, right?"

"I wasn't talking to you." He snarled. "What were you doing?"

"Making hot, sweaty love on the table." Bekka replied, shrugging. "What does it look like?"

Rick sniggered. "Hey. Good call there." He scribbled something on his pad.

"And what are you doing?" Bob said, turning back to him.

"Drawing." Rick replied. "She wanted to be in the comic I'm writing. There's no harm in that."

"Let me see that..." he snatched up Ricks sketch pad, and flipped through it. "Hmph... what is this stuff?"

"Its my work." Rick said. "Well, my concepts at least. The good stuff from there goes into my comics. If you want, I can send ya a couple of issues of my previous works." He shrugged. "Of course, I'd need an address to send it to."

"This constitutes a breach of security." Bob snarled. "I should have you detained."

"Oh, lay off it, Bob." Alex said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Sel said that these people were our guests for the time being. She also said that we're not to nag, harass or hassle them, nor are we to stick to them and obsessively follow them everywhere." He then added, "I think she was talking to you specifically, Bob."

"Well I don't trust them." He said, and turned around. In front of him was a short, muscular woman, smiling in a cute way while glaring at him with rather worrying looking, pale green eyes.

"I like you." She said. He shook his head and walked off.

"Hey Vic!" Rick shouted. "Come over here." Vic sat down at the table, along with Alex. "I was just telling Bekka here about the comic. She wants to be in it as well."

"Keen." Vic replied.

"Comic?" Alex said.

"Rick is writing a comic about us." Vic said. "It's a story of a bunch of ordinary deranged maniacs set against the background of a world gone sane."

"What did she say?" Alex asked. He looked at Bekka, who shrugged.

"Don't mind her." Rick said, seemingly oblivious to the worried looks the pair of them were giving her. "Naw, what I'm doing is writing a comic, based on what my team and I are doing out here in the desert. It's meant to be a stark, realistic, gritty depiction of warfare, as opposed to the idealised images of action movie heroism that's the prevalent trend."

Alex thumbed his sketchpad. "Is that why all the girls have gravity defying racks?"

"It's... uh... stylistic. Yeah." He smiled nervously. "By exaggerating the, uh, characters I, uh, I make the world around them seem more stark and realistic by comparison. Yeah."

"Do we believe him?" Bekka asked Alex.

"I did like what he'd done with your design..." He looked at it.

"I want to have a gravity defying rack too" Vic muttered.

Alex turned to look at Rick. "So can I be in this too, or do I need to have boobs the size of my head as well?"

-----

A lone, battered Serpent sped across the desert. High above it, a Z-Ray monitored its progress, following it as it went while leaving the Serpent's pilot unaware that he was being watched.

"This is Z-One to base" he reported. "The Serpent is definitely heading straight for us. I think he's aware of our location. The Zoid is damaged, but not enough to impair its combat ability."

"Understood, Manta three." A female voice replied. "Contact him and try to establish his Identity. If he poses a threat to us, kill him."

"Yes, mam!" The Z-ray pilot replied. Turning his communicator to a board transmission, he directed it to the Serpent. "Unidentified Zoid, Identify yourself immediately or be destroyed." He gave it a few seconds to reply. "I repeat, unidentified Zoid-"

A face appeared on his comm screen. It was a man with thin, blood-stained, pointy face, dark eyes, a shaved head and a beared. The pilot recognised him immediately. "Get your commander on the line immediately. I need to speak to her right away."

-----

Sandra walked into the massive hanger bay. Looking down from a catwalk, she saw technicians swarming over the three Zoids of her team, ignoring the damage to the others. The blues of the Liger, Wolf and Gunsniper stood out compared to the grey bay and the black and grey Zoids sharing the bay. She noted the damage to her Shield Liger, finding some amusement in the fact that it was confined almost entirely to the cockpit.

A dark haired man with green eyes, wearing a grey uniform walked up next to her, and joined her in looking over the bay. "You're the warrior from the Shield Liger, right?" he asked.

"Warrior?" Sandra found the term odd, but then, her day had been odd so far. "I guess you could call me that."

"I wanted to say thank you." The man continued. "If your people hadn't rescued us, I don't know what would have happened down there."

"It... it was the right thing to do." Sandra replied. "I mean, we were hunting those reds, you were hunting them, we had a common enemy, you were in trouble, we helped you out, we kicked some red dates and I got my head smacked in." Sandra said. "I would have done it for everyone."

"Leaping in front of that Mammoth to save the Gunsniper was a very brave and selfless thing to do." He said. "I applaud your courage."

"Once again, right thing to do." Sandra stated. "I'd like to say that the others would have done the same for me, but..." She shrugged. "So which one of them is yours?"

He pointed at the looming shape of the Deadborder at the far end of the bay. "That one over there."

Sandra whistled. "Deadborder. Big, ugly, monstrously armed bastard. Neat."

"I like him." The man replied. "I don't know how to put it, but I think that he understands me beyond the neural link. Or maybe we want to do the same things."

"Which are?" Sandra asked, looking at him.

"To serve and protect, really." He replied. Sandra nodded, noting the small scar above his eye.

"To serve and protect..." Sandra said. "Sandra Blackmore." She offered her hand.

"Matt Black" he said, and shook it.

"You do this a lot?" She asked. "Going into the desert and kicking the living carpet out of Red Mutants, I mean."

"Not that often, no." He replied. "This is my first big trip out, so to speak."

"Right." Sandra said. "This isn't exactly a new experience for me. Well, the fighting mutant gerwalk Zoids isn't. The being pulverised by an irate Mammoth and waking up on a Whale King are somewhat new to me."

"So you're a soldier?" He asked.

"More like a professional freelance trouble consultant." Sandra said. "Which is a longhand way of saying 'mercenary'." She casually rubbed the scars under her missing right eye. "Speaking of freelance trouble, where are my men at the moment?"

"They both are in the rec room, last I saw." Matt replied.

"You'll forgive me if I run off, Matt." She said. "But I think I'd better check on them before they start breaking things." She waved as she departed. "Nice to meet you, Matt."

"You too... Sandra." He said as she left.

Matt went back to watching the technicians, only to have his thoughts interrupted again. Sel walked up next to him, and also leant on the rail, peering out over the bay. "I saw you talking to our guest." She said.

"She's an interesting person." Matt replied. "She has a strange amount of dedication to duty for a mercenary."

"I noticed that." Sel said. "She cares a lot more for her men than I'd thought possible out of a hired soldier."

"She's a bit like you, actually." Matt replied. "Same dedication to duty, same degree of care for her subordinates and a good sense of what is right and wrong. I wouldn't mind working alongside her again, albeit in different circumstances."

"You don't think they pose a security risk?" Sel asked.

"I don't think so." He answered. "I suspect that Sandra is, in essence, an honest person. And I think saving her life would be a favour she's not likely to forget."

"And the others?"

"I haven't spoken to them as yet, but I think we can trust them, or at the very least trust her to keep them under control."

"That's good." Sel finished. "There is one other thing I needed to discuss with you." She looked down over the bay at the huge Deadborder undergoing repairs. "What happened to you out there this morning?"

"What do you mean, captain?" He asked in reply.

Sel turned to face him. "I get hit. Your Deadborder suddenly... freaks out, for want of a better term. Either you or your Zoid suddenly launch into a full-frontal charge on the Mammoth, roaring and screaming as it goes and proceeds to rip it apart with its teeth." She stated. "Now I know I haven't seen much live combat, but I'm assuming that's not normal."

"I think the Zoid may have gotten too excited in the middle of combat. It was, after all, originally a wild Zoid." Matt answered. "I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Nonetheless, I'm going to make sure that it and your neural link have a full check-up when we get back."

"Understood." he said. "Oh, captain, one thing."

"Yes, Sargent?" Sel replied.

"You still have your face-paint on." He said, and walked off.

Sel rubbed one cheek, and noted the red spears on her hand. "How did I forget that?" she asked herself, and then rubbed her forehead. "Sandra would have seen me in the hospital like this and..." Shaking her head, she walked off in search of a washroom.

-----

Sandra walked into the ships Rec room. For some reason, she wasn't surprised that it, like the rest of the ship, was grey. What did surprise her was the lack of adornment. No posters, no decorations, no adds for the trivia night or table tennis championship, nothing. The other thing that struck her was the lack of people. Rick and Vic were there, as were three crew (she assumed they were the Heldigunner pilots from this morning), but nobody else. Two of them, a young woman and a long-haired man, were sitting with Rick and Vic. The other one was sitting in a corner, glaring at the other table.

Choosing to ignore him for the minute, Sandra walked over to the table. "Hi guys."

Rick and Vic turned to look at her. "Oh, hi Sandra." Rick said.

"You're looking well." Vic said. "For someone who was nearly dead."

She shrugged. "Yeah, well, it looked worse than it was." Turning to the two pilots she asked, "Mind if I join you guys?"

"Not at all." the man said.

Sandra grabbed a seat and sat down. "Forgive my rudeness. My name's Sandra Blackmore. I'm guessing you were two of the Heldy pilots from before."

"That's us." The man replied. "I'm Alex Senior, and she's Bekka Cade" he in indicated to the woman. "The sulk in the corner is Bob."

"Rick was just telling us about his comic." Bekka stated. "We're getting into it."

"Really." Sandra said, rolling the 're'. "I hope you two know what you're getting into."

"I offered to send them some of my earlier works, but they didn't give a postal address." Rick said. "Or more to the point, she said 'can't say' a dozen times."

Bekka smiled in a way that could only be described as 'cute.' "I can't wait to see it."

"Right." She turned to Vic. "You haven't been causing trouble, have you?"

"Me? Never." Vic said, giving a rather wide-eyed, cute, sweet and innocent look.

"Right." Sandra said. "Well, the good news is that they're repairing the Zoids for us."

"Keen." Vic said.

Rick smiled. "And here's me without any major damage and between major overhauls. A free fix doesn't come along any day."

"Anyway, the damage to our Zoids should be repaired soon. The captain has also allowed us to have first pick over the salvage, as well as take all the surviving pilots as prisoners for the bounty value."

Rick whistled. "Not bad. We should help out more Dark Zoids in distress."

Bekka sniggered. "I'll have to get in trouble more often."

Sandra indicated to Bob. "What's his problem?" she asked.

"Don't mind Bob." Alex sneered. "He's just a dick."

"Ah..." Sandra said. "One of those."

"He's your basic paranoid jerk." Rick said. "He's been breathing over our shoulders, wanting to know what we're doing and acting like a general pain in the arse. I think he thinks we're spies or something." He sipped his drink. "And he had the nerve to critique my work. I bet he's never even been to art college."

"You never went to art collage, Rick." Sandra said.

"My point still stands." Rick said, sulkily. "Hey, is he always like this?"

"Well that's a difficult question." Alex replied. "If you said 'is he always this much of a dick', I'd say 'no.' But if you said 'is he a dick', I'd say 'yes.'" That elected another round of laughs.

"So he doesn't meet new people often?" Sandra asked.

"I'd say that none of us do." Bekka replied. "We don't get out much. Of course, most of us are open to new people."

"You don't get out much?" Rick asked. "Why not."

Bekka was about to say something, when Alex cut her off. "This whole army thing is a full-time job."

"It's called 'Work', Rick." Sandra said. "Some people do it for a living rather than staring at a sketchpad and waiting for a paycheck to arrive."

"I work!" Rick shouted. "I worked hard to get my stuff out on time!"

"You put out an average of 0.8 books per month." Vic said. "Peak was one, low was 0.6" Everyone stared at her.

"Right." Alex said. "And what do you do for..." he began, but noticed Rick and Sandra gesturing frantically.

"Kill people." She grinned. There was a general silence. Rick and Sandra glared at him.

"Right. Well. Okay." Alex said. "I... I suppose everyone here does, after a fashion." Dead silence.

"Way to kill the mood" Bekka muttered.

"Sorry."

"It's okay..." Rick said. "Vic's like that. You get used to it after a while."

"No you don't" Sandra said.

"Okay, so you don't. But we live with her."

"Yep, that they do." Vic added.

"So how long you... you two been doing this 'mercenary' thing for, anyway?" Alex said.

"Let's se..." Rick said. "Last comic bummed out about two years ago... cash scrounging time... Wolf buying time... training... getting in shape... lawsuits... creative control hissy fit... about six months."

"And I've been doing it for two years solid." Sandra finished. "With practical combat experience before then. How about you guys?"

Bekka started to say something, but then Alex cut her off. "Two years each. We were in the same class, as was Bob."

Sandra's eye narrowed. "Where did you learn to pilot Zoids, anyway?"

Bekka got ahead of Alex this time. "Can't say." she answered.

"She says that a lot" Rick said, aside.

"I guessed." Sandra replied.

Sel strode into the room, with Matt behind her. "You'll be pleased to know that I have spoken to our technicians. The repairs to your Zoids will be complete in three hours. The damage to the Gunsniper and Shield Liger was relatively contained and repairable.

"And my Woof was fine." Rick added. "See? I am good. Admit it."

"We're going to drop you back in the Canyon" Sel continued, ignoring Rick like everyone else was. "We've left the red Zoid wreckage there, and we will also leave you with the captured pilots."

"Bounty and parts. Sounds good." Vic said.

"I would also like to personally thank you all for rescuing myself and my men" she indicated to the three seated pilots and Matt. Without your help, I don't think we would all be here now."

"Don't worry about it." Rick casually replied. "We did what was the right thing to do. I'm sure that you would have done the same thing if you were in our place."

Sel looked at her pilots. "Of course we would."

-----

Reven wasn't the sort of person who was used to taking orders. A tall, long-haired, attractive woman with piercing green eyes, she was a forceful woman who generally demanded respect, and often got it. However, right now it paid to listen to orders, as they were coming from the man who was effectively her boss. Grant and her went back a couple of years. She had been one of the first people that he had recruited into his little army. Impressed by her skills, he had put her in charge of their then small contingent of flying Zoids. As their ranks grew, she had become the effective second in command of the organisation. Then, he had split her flying troops off from his regular forces, and set them up as a special unit called the Red Wings. Why he needed a separate, well-trained, well-organised air force was beyond her. For obliterating caravans and attacking small towns, it seemed to be overkill. Still...

Right now, Grant was pacing back and forth in the command centre of the Red Wings subterranean lair. His face was a mess of cuts and bruises that a medic had tried to attend to before being brushed off. His pilots suit was tattered, and made for an interesting comparison with Reven's expensive, custom tailored flightsuit and jacket.

"Those bastards!" he shouted. "They dared to attack me...ME! And in my own home too!" He turned around to face her. "They'll pay for this!"

"So what exactly happened?" Reven asked. Grant has turned up in a combat damaged Serpent; about the last Zoid she'd expect him to pilot. Clearly his Red Mammoth, as well as anything else he could get his hands on, had been destroyed or were for some reason unavailable.

"The base was attacked... a bunch of mercenaries. They wiped almost all of my men out." He sneered. "All but a few cowards who refused to fight."

"Are these the same one you had my pilot track?" Reven asked. He'd gotten her to send one of her pilots to track a group of three Mercenaries who had wiped out one of his groups. With the info from the recon pilot, Grant had set up an ambush at the entrance to his base. Clearly it hadn't worked.

"Yes!" he shouted angrily. "No! No, there was them, but they were with another group. Dark Zoids; a Darkhorn, a Deadborder and some Heldigunners. They attacked, tripped the ambush. The others came along, joined the first lot and they wiped out my army."

"So where are they now?" Reven asked.

"The Dark Zoids took off in some Whale King. It was..." He walked around, waving his hands around as if he was trying to remember something. "It was grey. Yes, grey... no... black. A Big, black Whale King. With green eyes." He turned around to face Reven. "I want you to find this Whale for me! Hunt it, track it... find where it is, who it belongs to, where they're from and what they're doing... but don't attack them. Yet."

"So what are you going to do about the mercenaries?" Reven asked. "I suppose you want me to take care of them?"

"Oh no." Grant sneered. "I'll look after them myself."

-----

The massive Whale King rose into the sky, then sped off into the setting sun, leaving three Zoids behind. Well, three Zoids, their pilots, a huge pile of scrap metal and a collection of bound Red Zoid Pilots. Waiting until the Whale King was well out of sight, Sandra called their employer for a pickup and payment.

"We've got about half an hour." Sandra said when she was done. "They were beginning to wonder what had happened to us."

"Why not tell them the truth?" Rick asked. "Its not that big a strain to believe it."

"I'd rather not." Sandra said. "For several reasons."

"Like?"

Sandra's Shield Liger turned to face the Gunsniper. "Vic, I'm told that you helped pull me out of my Liger's cockpit. What shape was I in?"

"Bad. Lots of cuts to body. Deep ones too. Blood and lots of it." Vic replied. "You were a mess, even for you."

"So you'd say, not the kind of stuff that can be fixed by a couple of hours rest?"

"Nope."

"And if I told you I came out of it with no scars whatsoever and that my appendix scar had also vanished?"

"Woo... spooky." Vic said.

"There were a couple of other things that got me." Sandra continued. "Their Whale King was virtually uninhabited. I saw only the five pilots and a 'bare minimum' crew." She paused to remember something. "And both Sel and Matt used some weird terminology. They called Zoid pilots 'warriors' amongst other things."

"Yeah... there was something weird about them." Rick said. "Bekka dodged just about every question I asked her about her background, saying 'can't say' every time. I mean, I know there's security and all in military organisations, but I think she went a little too far." Rick thought a little longer and then added. "Several times, she was going to say something, then Alex cut her off. I think she did it to him at some point."

"Now that I think about it, we have no idea why they were trying to boof the Reds." Sandra said. "Given that they left us with the prisoners and the salvage with no questions asked, they can't have been after them. And at five Zoids, they're way too small to be a military force. An expeditionary force to get rid of the Reds would have sent more. Yet Bekka said she was a professional soldier, as did Matt"

"So... no idea who they are or where they're from, they have super mad medical skillz and are probably not an army yet they are military, they boof reds for the simple fun of it and they fix Zoids for free with no questions asked." Rick finished. "Anything else?"

"The Deadborder's weird." Vic added.

"How so?" Sandra asked.

"When the Darkhorn was crippled, it went mad. Screaming fit, tearing across the battlefield, berserk rage... chewed down on the mammoth. Chomp." Vic answered, delivering it all in a rather disturbing monotone. "Not normal."

"Like she can talk" Rick muttered.

"So..." Sandra said. "We have a Whale king full of weirdoes with over armed Zoids cruising around the Wastelands for... the fun of it, I guess." She paused. "Right. Let us never speak of this again."

"Agreed." Rick replied.

"So... what are we going to do about that bunch of tools?" Sandra asked, her Liger gesturing to the group of bound bandit pilots. "We can't grantee they won't talk."

"Let me talk to them for a few minutes." Vic said. "I'll make it all good." Then she smiled in a cute yet very distressing way.

-----

Frank nervously waited for the shadow to pass overhead, his Legz crouched behind yet another rock. He counted the seconds until it passed... three... two... one... go! The spider-like Zoid dashed out from behind its latest hiding place, running in a zigzag pattern across the barren landscape. Making a final leap, it landed then crouched behind another huge rock outcropping. Frank breathed a sigh of relief. He was just a little closer to his objective. Only a few thousand kilometres still to go, he ruefully thought. Hopefully, the Reddlers would give up before that. They must be reaching the limit of their patrol zone.

Waiting a few more minutes to make sure the air was clear, he risked another dash. The nearest outcropping of any amount of cover was further away then he would have liked, but it was his only option. He couldn't remain hidden forever. The Legz once again sprinted out from cover, weaving across the terrain.

The rock loomed up closer and closer on the viewscreen. Nearly there... nearly there... Frank focused on the rock, willing his Zoid to go faster, to reach this objective. Then, unexpectedly, the rock exploded into a shower of gravel.

Looking behind him, he saw one of the Reddlers swooping down, an eerie black and green figure against the red sunset. The dragon Zoid fired its twin wing-mounted beam cannons again. The blasts missed the Legs, but rocked it, showering the cockpit with debris.

"Can't go back now." Frank said to himself. All he could do was search for the nearest cover. The Legz darted out again, weaving frantically. The second Reddler joined its wingman, adding its fire to the first's. Blasts rocked the small Zoid, each one getting closer and closer to it. Another outcropping loomed ahead, with a deep cave underneath it. Perfect. He could duck under there, and evade their fire. If they wanted to get him, they'd have to come down there to get him, somewhat evening the odds.

Just a little closer...

An explosion rocked the Zoid, sending it crashing to the ground. Warning lights went off all over the cockpit, indicating major damage to the engine and back legs. Frank struggled to bring it back to its feet, only to be sent crashing down by another blast that shook him around in his harness, bashing his head against the console. Scanning the few functioning displays, Frank could tell that the Legz wasn't going anywhere.

Grabbing the data disk and his pistol, he pushed the canopy open. Leaping out, he saw the cave ahead. He could make it, he thought. If he got really, really lucky, the Reddler pilots themselves would have to come in after him. He knew the odds were slim, but if he could get one of the Reddlers, it'd be perfect. It would not only provide a fast method out of here, he thought, but it would also provide some material proof of his claims.

Of course, he had to get there first.

No such luck. An explosion right behind him sent him flying through the air, landing limply like a rag doll with his limbs sprawled out, staring straight into the sky. The last thing he saw was a shape passing overhead, a slender, graceful winged shape that passed between him and the sun, its semi-transparent wings glowing in an odd way.

"What..." he muttered. "An angel. A freaky kind or angel."


	7. Darwinian Roadkill

Between two points, The Wastelands

1330 hours

Rusty Springs wasn't the biggest or best town around, and it was far from the nicest. Still, it was all together larger, better supplied, better maintained and more appealing to many other towns around, and certainly one of the better picks this side of the Bookend Mountains. So after a night of heavy boozing and a late morning followed by a full day of recovery, Sandra had decided to take the three of them away from the small anonymous town that had been their temporary home and back to the "big smoke", such as it was.

They had been on the road for two days, and had reached that certain stage of every long trip they undertook. Their Zoids all but piloting themselves, with a rambling, three-way conversation going on about nothing in particular. Well, more like a two-way conversation with the odd, inexplicable comment by Vic.

"So I was thinking of adapting the whole story pretty much as is." Rick said. He'd been going on for some time about what he'd planned to do with their little war with the Red Mutants and their run-in with Sel's group. "Of course, I'm going to have to adapt in a background for Sel's bunch."

"Why not leave it enigmatic?" Sandra replied. She liked listening to Rick ramble about his comic. He had some great ideas, but he often needed a little bit of steering to keep him on track.

"Well I could..." he mused. "I can leave it open for future use. Say, use it at a later date if I need too. I'm sure I could make something up if needs be."

"You could find out the truth." Sandra stated, flatly. "You could discover the story behind them and then tell the whole world about it."

"You can't handle the truth" Vic said. The Shield Liger and Command Wolf turned to look at her, then continued, deciding to ignore her for now. They walked along in silence, until Rick finally opened a secure channel to Sandra.

"You don't think she knows about them, do you?" He asked.

"Frankly, I'm afraid of the answer." Sandra replied.

"Mmm." Rick muttered. "Probably best not to think about-" he said, then was cut off.

The sand in front of them erupted as a red and cream-coloured, scorpion-shaped Zoid burst out from the ground. It advanced towards the Shield Liger, its claws snapping menacingly. Around them, three other scorpions emerged of the same design but different colours; blue, black and brown. The three Zoids backed into each other, surrounded by the smaller attackers.

A vid-window opened in Sandra's cockpit, showing a man wearing a black face-mask that showed only his small, brown eyes. "You're in trouble now." He began in a low, menacing voice. "We're the Black Scorpion gang, and you're in our way. I suggest you surrender now, and save yourself the pain."

There was a tense silence as the Zoids and pilots stared each other down, before Sandra replied. "Wait.... wait a second. You're asking us to surrender? You're piloting a mess of Guysacks, and you're asking us to surrender? Think about this, you big, dumb tool!"

The Shield Liger raised its shield, then leapt forward, crashing down on the scorpion in front of it and pinning its claws. The lion Zoid roared then smashed its forepaw down on the scorpion's tail, smashing it aside.

Behind her, Rick and Vic acted quickly. Vic fired a volley from all eight of her pod-mounted guns, smashing two of the Zoids, sending them sprawling back to the ground in piles of smoking wreckage. Rick fired his assault cannon at another one, wrecking it in a single volley.

The last, dark blue scorpion, upon seeing what had happened to his colleges decided instead to run. "I got him!" Rick shouted, firing his cannons at it as it fled. The blasts struck the Zoid in its hindquarters, knocking several of its legs off and severing the tail. The front half of the Zoid flailed a bit, and then stopped.

-----

High above, a lone Z-Ray watched the battle. The pilot observed the destruction of the Black Scorpion gang, and then activated his communicator. "Z-One to base. The Black Scorpions are down, repeat the Black Scorpions are down. All three targets are active."

"Right." Came the voice at the other end. "Tell the others where they are and their heading."

"Affirmative." The pilot replied.

-----

"The united colours of Guysack" Vic said, as her Gunsniper loomed over the wreckage of the brown scorpion she'd destroyed.

"Actually, I think they're all different types of Zoid." Rick commented. "I think the red ones' a Stang, and the blue one is an Evil Scorpion."

"Evil scorpion" Vic said. "Wooo scary."

"Hey Sandra!" he shouted. "How are you going down there?"

Sandra had climbed out of her Zoid, and had been holding a "polite discussion" with the pilot of the Stang, who had been the masked pilot who had threatened her. He'd been rather willing to cooperate, especially given the other two Zoids looming over him. "Not much to say." Sandra shouted back as she dumped their leader back in the sand. "These tools are your common or garden variety of desert thug. They decided to pick a fight with us hoping to rob us of anything we had and, well..." She gestured to the five wrecked Guyzacks spread across the landscape.

"So, uh, what do we do with them?" Rick asked.

"I can think of a few things." Vic replied.

Sandra glared at the Gunsniper. "We are not doing anything like that." The Gunsniper looked disappointed. "We can't take them with us. We don't have any transport, and hanging them off the backs of our Zoids would be excessive."

Rick rubbed his chin. "So... we leave 'em here?" he asked.

Sandra shrugged. "Might as well." She turned to look at the mess of wrecked Zoids and abused pilots. "Their Zoids are write-offs and they've got no ride out of here. They're pretty much harmless as is. Worst this bunch of tools can do now is chase people waving strips of metal and bad breath"

She climbed back into the Liger's cockpit. After giving the Zoid a quick once-over to check that it was unharmed, she glared down at the enemy pilots. "Right. You lot, you get the frelling hell out of here. And if I ever come across you lot again, doing whatever it is that you are doing, I'll come down on you like the wrath of Tomy himself." The pilots scampered.

"That worked." Vic said.

"So what now?" Rick asked. "Don't you feel bad about letting them go like that?"

"Naw." Sandra replied. "They're evil desert bandits of dubious personal hygiene. Odds on they deserve whatever they get out there." She glared at the Gunsniper. "Besides, we're not like them." The Gunsniper seemed to shrug.

"What?" Vic asked.

-----

Phillipe De Leon sat on a deckchair outside his tent, under the shade of a large umbrella. He was a slim, attractive man, with a narrow face and curly brown hair, wearing an expensive crushed velvet jacket and ruffled shirt. He was currently reading, one of his favourite pastimes. Well, favourite one he could indulge in without the company of a beautiful lady, or a good poker player. His relaxation was disturbed by his butler, Jenkins, coughing loudly behind him.

"Forgive the interruption, sir." Jenkins began. "But I have just received a communiqué for you from a mister Zed-One."

"And what did this man have anything to say?" Phillipe asked, most irritated at having his rest interrupted.

"He said that your targets were approaching, and would reach your position within half an hour, sir." the butler replied.

Phillipe put down his book, and turned to face the butler. "Really?" He said. "Well that is interesting news. It will certainly make this whole trip out to the desert to be worth my while."

"Indeed, sir." Jenkins replied. "Shall I prepare your Zoid for you, sir?"

"Definitely, Jenkins." Phillipe replied. "I will dress myself for the occasion, and expect it to be ready when I am out."

"Certainly, sir." Jenkins replied, and bowed.

Phillipe put his book down and walked into his tent. This is what he had been waiting out here for all this time. It was a difficult job, but at one that the rewards certainly justified the risk of taking. Making sure to remove all his extra playing cards from his sleeve, he swapped his suit for a classy pilot suit that he had purchased just last week. If one was to do ones job, he mused, one may as well do ones best.

As he stepped outside, he saw that Jenkins had removed the camouflage netting that had been concealing his Zoid. The polish on the orange and white Snipe Master gleamed in the sunlight. It was a beautiful Zoid, he thought, one worthy of a pilot like him.

"Your neurohelmet, sir." Jenkins said as he handed him the helmet.

"Thank you, Jenkins." He looked up at the Snipe Master. "I'll be back in about an hour or so. If you could please have tea ready by then."

"Certainly, sir."

-----

"All I'm saying, Vic." Sandra said as their three Zoids continued through the desert. "Is that we had no reason to kill them. They were, in essence, helpless and harmless. Killing them would have made us into criminals, worse then they were."

"But we kill people all the time." Vic muttered back.

"Yes, but not like that. We kill them when we're fighting them. We kill them when they're piloting their Zoids. We kill them when they're capable of defending themselves and not unarmed and defenseless. Even then, I'd prefer not to."

"Think of us as being more like Zabatman, and less like the Retributor" Rick said.

"What?" Sandra shouted. "Care to say that again?"

"Zabatman." Rick answered. "You know, the Dark Knight?"

"Nope." Sandra replied, her Liger shaking its head.

"Well, Zabatman's a masked crime fighter. While he beats criminals up, he doesn't kill them." Rick explained. "Its 'cause his parents were killed when he was a child, and he fights to avenge them. But he doesn't want to be a killer like the men who killed his parents."

"Right." Sandra said. "And this Retributor guy?"

"Oh he's just a dumb tool who goes around dispensing 'justice' with automatic firearms." Rick finished.

"You said tool." Vic added.

"Damn."

Sandra sniggered. "Well, I guess that all makes sense, after a fashion."

-----

Phillipe stared into the scope of his Snipe Master's targeting system. Zooming out, he scanned the valley below him. Three blue Zoids were moving into the valley, apparently unaware of his presence. Excellent. He zoomed in, narrowing in on each of them in turn.

A Shield Liger led the three. A powerful Zoid in its own right, the Shield Liger could easily overpower him if it attacked him at close range. However, its complete lack of long-range weapons meant that it was of little threat to him from there. He moved on to the second Zoid, a Command Wolf. Examining the large cannon on the back, he spotted it as either being an upgrade, or one of the new AC types. Fast and agile, its large cannons gave it a powerful long-range punch that could pose a threat to him. Definitely dangerous. The third one was a Gunsniper. Similar in size and capabilities to his Snipe Master, this one sported an extensive array of weapons on side pods, as well as a large radar dome. The Gunsniper had an impressive long range capability, almost matching his own. However, in order to use it, it would have to convert into its sniper mode, rendering it immobile and thus an easy target.

Evaluating the three targets, he decided that the Command Wolf was easily the most dangerous to him of the three, given these circumstances. Focusing on the Wolf again, he zoomed in on its body. A clean shot through the engine block should fell it in one shot, he thought. He tracked the Wolf for about thirty seconds, waiting for a clearer shot where it wouldn't be obscured by the rock ridge. Then it emerged into the clear. Perfect. He fired.

Unfortunately, at the same time, the Wolf apparently tripped over something, sprawling to the ground. The shot ripped through one of the fins on the top of the cannon, punching a hole straight through it but doing little more than cosmetic damage.

-----

It happened so quickly. One second, Rick's Wolf was right behind Sandra's Liger, following in formation. The next, it was sprawled in the dirt, one foot stuck in a hole with a shot gone straight though one of the fins on the back-mounted assault cannon. A second later, all three Zoids were crouching.

"What the frelling hell happened?" Sandra shouted.

"Sniper. Top of the hill. Tried to gloop Rick." Vic replied.

Sandra looked up. She could see a faint glint of metal at the top of the mountain. Her sensors, however, revealed nothing there. "I can see it... but no sign of it on my sensors."

"Snipe Master." Vic replied. "Sneaky type."

"So what do we do?" Rick asked. Another shot dug into the rock ridge near his Wolf's head, sending debris flying.

"Here's the plan." Sandra said. "It's a crazy, stupid and insane idea, but it may just work."

"Is there a chance that we'll get killed or maimed?" Vic asked.

"Some."

"Good. Let's go."

-----

Phillipe looked down at the three Zoids. They were all crouched behind a low rock wall at the base of the ridge, making targeting them such a bother. None of them were exposed enough for a killing or even crippling shot. Anything less would be ineffectual, not to mention sloppy and unprofessional. Unless...

Taking a chance, he released the Snipe Master's foot clamps and switched it back to its walking mode. Gently, he eased the Zoid backwards, so it was on the very lip of the canyon, before planting the clamps in and returning to the sniper mode. Peering through the scope, he looked around for his targets. The Command Wolf and Gunsniper were still there, hidden behind the rock wall. There was no sign of the Shield Liger.

He zoomed back, looking for it. There was no sign of it below. Unless... Oh dear. He zoomed back further. The Shield Liger was charging up the hill, its shield up. Now that was a bother. Nothing for it then. He lowered the gun, pointing it straight at the charging Liger.

Suddenly, the Snipe Master was rocked by several near-misses. The Command Wolf had opened fire with its big guns, apparently firing wildly in order to throw him off the Shield Liger. Undeterred, he kept his aim steady... and then was shocked when the ground dropped out from underneath him. The scope rocked as the Snipe Master slid down the side of the hill. He grabbed at the controls, struggling to keep the Zoid under control.

Unfortunately for him, the Liger pilot had other ideas. Keeping the shield up, it simply rammed into his Snipe Master, swiping at it with one shielded paw. The hit smashed through the tail armour, striking at the gun barrel, ruining it. The force of the blow knocked the smaller Zoid onto its side leaving him sliding down the hill with no chance of regaining control. "Oh, bother!" He shouted to himself. This was not working out.

Bracing for the worst, Phillipe felt the impact as the Zoid hit the canyon floor. Nervously opening his eyes, he saw the Command Wolf and Gunsniper standing over his downed Zoid, leering at him. The wolf appeared to be snarling, while the Gunsniper was waving its tail in a decidedly menacing way.

"I suppose that in this case, discression is the better part of valor." He said over his Zoid's loudspeaker system. "I surrender."

-----

The Z-Ray pilot looked down at the downed Snipe Master and the three other Zoids. The Gunsniper and Command Wolf were standing over it, while the Shield Liger was leaving the area, presumably looking for something else. He reached for his communicator. "This is Z-One to base. De Lyon is down, repeat, De Lyon is down. Targets are all still operational."

The voice at the other end came back. "Inform the next group of the target status and heading."

"Affirmative, sir." The pilot closed the connection. Something told him that this would not go well.

-----

Sandra stared at the setup in front of her, with a mixture of awe and amusement. An elderly butler was standing in front of her, carrying a silver tea-tray with a cup of tea on it. Behind him was a pair of large, expensive-looking tents, not to mention a deckchair, beach umbrella and a small table. Behind them was a Gustav, its trailers loaded down with assorted crates and packages.

"Excuse me." The butler began. Sandra zoomed her screen in on him. "But am I to assume by your presence here, my master will not be returning for his tea?"

"That would be a definite 'yes.'" Sandra replied, rolling her eye. What was with this guy, she thought.

"I see. Would you be interested in some tea?"

"Uh... no thanks." Sandra replied. Temporarily killing the speakers, she opened a comm link to the others. "Guys, I think we've solved our Scorpion transporting problem."

"Oh?" Rick asked.

"Yeah." She replied. "Just keep our friend under control for a few minutes. I've got a plan." She closed the link, then reactivated the speakers. "Thanks for the offer of the tea, my good man." The sarcasm was dripping off her words. "However, there is something else you can do for me."

-----

A few hours later, they were on their way again. Phillipe's Gustav had proven to be incredibly useful to them. Currently, it was carrying the wreckage of the four Zoids of the Black Scorpion gang, as well as Phillipe's battered Snipe Master. Phillipe was currently enjoying the company of the Black Scorpion pilots, while remaining bound to the back of the Gustav. Sandra was, for once in a good mood.

"So we knock over a desert gang and an effete hitman, get the bounties on their heads if any, get the salvage value of their Zoids as well as the re-sell value on a pretty top-notch Gustav." She said, smiling. "All in all, its been a pretty good trip so far, even accounting for attacks, interruptions, ammo use and some pretty inconsequential repairs."

"Yeah." Rick said. "And to think that it was looking like a boring trip."

"We don't know why they tried to kill us." Vic said.

"They're tooly desert bandits with more Zoids then braincells" Sandra replied. "They probably spotted us, took us for an easy target and made one of the dumbest moves in a life that was full of dumb moves."

"You're very cheery." Rick commented. "By now you're usually swearing at every rock, piece of scrub and sand dune you come across."

"Oh, come on." Sandra said. "For once, for me, my miserable frelling life is looking-"

"Stop." Vic cut her off. The Gunsniper walked a few steps in front of the others. "Small Zoid ahead. Immobile."

"Where?" Rick asked. "I can't see it."

"Very edge of sensor range." She replied.

"What type?" Sandra said.

"Not sure. Possibly a scout or spotter."

Sandra looked down at her display screen. Nope, nothing there, save for the Command Wolf, Gunsniper and Gustav. With the Weasel Pod, Vic's sensors extended further. Still... Suddenly, the display blurred. Multiple extra blips appeared all around the others. "What's happening?" She shouted to Vic.

"Jamming" Vic's voice came back, static crackling over the communicator. "Gator. Dimetrodon type. Sneaky ECM."

Rick stood there. "But why would he jam us unless..."

"RUN!" Sandra shouted. There was a whistling sound from the air. Suddenly, a huge explosion erupted in front of the Gustav. "Artillery!" She added as her Liger broke into a run. The three of them scattered as a pair of shells sailed through the air, throwing up more dirt.

"Where are they?" Rick shouted.

"No frelling idea!" Sandra replied. "The stupid tools are jamming us."

"ECM and Artillery. Clever." Vic muttered.

"So what about the Gustav?" Rick asked.

"They'll just have to figure it out for themselves." Sandra shouted back. "Anyone got a plan?"

"None whatsoever." Rick replied.

"Great. Vic?"

"One. It has potential for much hurt."

Sandra thought about this, or at least as much as she could while dodging shells. "Right. What do you need?"

"Time, some cover and a distraction." She replied.

"Right." Sandra said. "I'll let you. But if you get us all killed don't come crying to me."

-----

Psycho Sam prided himself on being smarter than the average criminal thug. Certainly, he knew he was smarter then his two brothers, Snot and Big Dick. Snot and Big Dick were the type who believed in hitting things until they fell over. He was smart enough to develop plans that made them even better at hitting things. His brothers called him Psycho for this, not because of any murderous tendencies.

He'd come up with their current plan which he thought was easily the best plan yet. He used a Gator to jam the enemy's sensors and communications, as well as providing long-range targeting while brothers manned a pair of Cannontortises. They used the long range targeting provided by him to hit their opponents, while the ECM prevented their enemies from firing back. It was an elegantly simple plan, one so simple that even Snot and Big Dick could follow it.

Peering into his scope, he noted that one of the blips had, after moving a bit, had stopped dead. Surely it couldn't be the Gunsniper. If that pilot thought they could get of a sniper shot at him, they were insane.

"Hey, Snot!" He shouted into the comms.

"Yeah?" Snot's none to smart voice came back.

"Big blip on the left hand side. Not going anywhere. See it?"

"Yeah." He replied. "Want me to hit it?"

"You got it, bro." He finished.

"Roit." He said, followed by the roar of the Cannon Tortoise's main gun firing.

Psycho Sam smiled. He loved it when a plan came off.

-----

Looking through her sniper scope, Vic saw the Gustav narrowly avoid a hit from an artillery round. The silly thing scampered around in circles, trying not to be hit. It looked rather silly, she thought. Good thing they'd detatched the trailers, though. Besides letting the Gustav roll faster, it meant that the salvage wouldn't get damaged. Rick and Sandra were running around, making idiots of themselves while dodging shells. Good. They needed to do that for a little longer.

She focused the sights on the Gator. There. The silly little spinefin was sitting there out in the relative open with a lack of protection. He didn't figure on someone getting around him. Then again, he probably didn't figure on somebody using a Gustav as bait.

Vic focused on the Gator. Despite the electronic interference, she knew she could hit it, even at a great distance while under cover and going for an awkward shot. She was using her eyes. She knew her eyes. Eyes were reliable. Eyes were the best targeting system she knew.

She focused on the livid purple Zoid, narrowing her eyes. Slowly licking her lips, she gently squeezed the trigger. There. The moment was right.

"Bang"

The Gator bucked and rolled, smoke billowing form its side. Perfect.

-----

"This rocks!" Big Dick shouted as he fired another round.

"Yeah!" Snot replied as he fired.

"These turtles rock!"

"Yeah!"

"BIG GUNS!"

"YEAH!"

There was a pause. "Hey where are they anyway?"

"Uh..." Snot replied. "I dunno."

"Hey Sam! Where did they go?" Big Dick shouted into the communicator. No response. "Sam, where are they?" Silence.

"What's happened?" Snot asked.

"I dunno." He replied. "Sam ain't answering."

"Where is he?"

"I dunno!"

"Where are the enemies?"

"Um..." Big Dick trailed off. There was a snarling noise from behind his Zoid. "Um... What was that?"

"I dunno." Snot replied. The two tortoises turned around to see the Shield Liger and Command Wolf behind them, snarling, their various weapons pointed at the two of them. "Er..." he slowly began, a nervous smile on his lips. "I think we're in trouble."

-----

The Z-Ray surveyed the battlefield, noting the three wrecked Zoids below. Unfortunately, the targets seemed to be unharmed. Near them, a lone Gustav was rolling around in circles as if trying to avoid getting hit; its trailers parked a distance away.

Sighing, he activated his communicator. "Z-One to base. The Cannon Tortoises are down. I'm going to activate the backup backup plan."

-----

Sandra's Shield Liger looked decidedly sulky as it walked alongside the others. The Gustav trailed them; its trailers piled high with debris and the prisoner collection expanded. "Stupid, tooly bandits." Sandra muttered. "Wasting our time, making us late, using up our ammo."

"What's up with you?" Rick asked, his Command Wolf walking alongside her Liger. "You were burbling over with enthusiasm a little while ago and now you're more sulky than usual."

"It's these attacks..." She replied. "Once is unlucky. Twice is a coincidence, albeit a bad one. Three times... I dunno." She shrugged. "Its like someone was out to get us or something."

"Naw, if someone was out to get us, they'd have sent someone more competent" Rick replied casually. "It's just desert thugs."

"That tool in the Snipe Master almost got you." Sandra countered. "If you hadn't fallen over, you'd have been taken out."

"And if he was any good, he would have hit me after I fell over." Rick finished. "See, all idiots."

Sandra muttered. "You're not even listening to me."

"Besides, we've got a huge heap of salvage, a pile of prisoners who have got to have bounties on their heads and a mostly new Gustav." He indicated towards the battered looking transport-turned-target. "So we're all fine. Besides, I figure we've got to have seen the last of those idiots for the day."

That much was probably right. Hey were getting near Rusty Springs, albeit far later then planed. "Yeah, I guess."

"Or an insane Darth could come out of nowhere and try to kill us all." Vic added. Their Zoids looked at hers, then continued. They had both long since gotten past worrying about what she said.

-----

Some distance across the desert, a pair of Zoids wandered across the landscape. The first was a Red Scavenger, the wild red mutant version of the Gustav, identical save for colouration. The second was more unusual. It sported the head, body and arms of a Hammer Rock, but in place of legs, it had the body and wheels of a Tank Zoid. Numerous missiles, cannons and boosters sprouted from its body. It was a truly unique Zoid amongst all the different types in the Shelflands.

Its pilot was a tall, slim man. He had a long, narrow face with very pale skin, as well as deep, black eyes and long, black hair. His hair was currently hidden by the advanced neurohelmet he used to control his Zoid, while the rest of him was hidden under a billowing black robe. His name was Darth Pants, and right now he was a very, very happy man for an evil overlord.

He'd just done a ludicrously good deal for a whole pile of wrecked Red Mutant Zoids, including the (somewhat chewed) carcass of a Red Mammoth, which his Red Scavenger was currently hauling. He'd also made a deal with a shifty-looking man that had guaranteed him some good quality parts in exchange for killing some people.

Pants secretly relished the opportunity. He enjoyed the thrill of battle, the anger and excitement of combat, and the personal triumph of seeing one of his creations emerge victorious against its foe.

The communicator on his Zoid's control panel activated. "Your targets have been located." The voice at the other end stated. It was the same man that had hired him for this job. "They are currently north-northwest of your position, bearing 345 at a distance of roughly 50 kilometers."

"Eeeexcelent." Pants replied. "I will take care of this immediately. You had better have my payment ready for me to collect." Before the voice could reply, he closed the connection.

After giving the Red Scavenger orders to return to his lair, dump the loot and then rejoin him after he was done, Pants sat back in his seat, thinking. This was the perfect opportunity. Taking on three Zoids with his one would be the perfect opportunity to test the power of his latest creation. He could feel the Zoid's eagerness to fight through the link. Yes, soon they'd see the true power of what he saw as his ultimate creation, the MunkyTruk.

He pushed the Zoid's accelerator open, speeding across the desert, kicking up a massive cloud of sand behind him. Within minutes, he was on a ridge, overlooking a well-used path. There below him were his targets; Shield Liger, an up-gunned Gunsniper and one of the newer-model Command Wolves. Behind them was a Gustav, loaded down with Zoid junk. Oh well, the thought. More material for him to use.

Revving the Munkytruk's engines, he checked the weapons systems. Numerous missile launchers, the miniaturized hyperbeam cannon, the twin-barreled shock cannon, a forward-mounted cannon and a pair of flexible ion boosters with additional missile launchers all registered as ready.

Firing the boosters, he charged down the hill, his targeting system locking up the three Zoids.

-----

Sandra saw something came barreling down the hill at the three of them. She didn't get a good look at it as it shot past, but she saw boosters, weapons, arms and... wheels? No... Whatever it was, it had shot up the other side of the valley and vanished off into the distance before she could get a good look at it.

Turning her Zoid to look at the others, she noted that Rick's Wolf was just standing there, its jaw gaping like it was in shock. "Did... did either of you see what that was?" She asked.

"You saw that too?!" Rick shouted back. "I thought I was going nuts!"

"Umm..." Sandra seemed to be, for once, at a loss for words. "Vic?"

"It looked like the Darthed hybrid of a Hammerock and a Tank Zoid charging down hill and propelled by boosters its pilot couldn't control while attempting to make an attack on us." She then smiled in a worryingly cute way. "But I could be mistaken."

The Z-Ray pilot looked down at the smoking wreckage on the far side of the valley. The Darthed mess of Hammerock and tank had come flying over the side of the valley, soared briefly through the air and then come to earth in a very final way.

He shook his head and opened the communicator. "Z-One to base. We need better hit men."

-----


	8. No Witnesses

A Pub, Rusty Springs

2030 hours

The three of them had arrived in Rusty Springs somewhat later then planned, but it was to be expected given all the attacks. After arriving and "parking" their Zoids, the three of them had spent some time dealing with various dealers and authorities. The Snipe master, being new and mostly complete had fetched a fair price; the rest of the Zoids were worth little more then scrap. The Gustav had also gone over well, fetching a fair price. Vic commented that it would have got more if not for the shelling it'd taken.

Their prisoners had also proven to be a profitable lot. All (Save for the butler) were known bandits with bounties posted on their heads. Sandra was strangely unsurprised to find that in the case of everyone save for Phillipe, the amount was rather low.

Having booked rooms for the night, the three had decided to engage in a serious discussion of the day's events, or at least as seriously as any discussion involving Vic could get. They had decided that the best way to do this was to drink a lot. They'd found a decent pub, not the best one any of them had ever seen, but at the same time far better then the last one they'd been in.

"Look, three groups of thugs all attacking us is more than a coincidence." Sandra said. "One attacking us, well, you can almost understand that. Two... maybe. If we were having a bad day or there was something that was making bandit raids more common then normal, like a shortage of water or a one-upmanship contest." She took a slug of beer, then continued. "Three... I dunno. Three too much for me to pass off as a coincidence."

"Maybe they're just stupid." Rick replied, casually. Rick had been dismissing the attacks they'd suffered during the day as trivial for most of the night, even though he was the one who'd come closest to getting himself or his Zoid badly wounded.

"It's beyond stupid." Sandra came back. "They attack three upper-end combat Zoids that clearly weren't carrying any cargo or anything valuable to steal. All they could have gotten out of us is salvage, which wouldn't be worth the risk of fighting the three of us."

"Okay, so they're incredibly stupid." Rick replied. "They all pick fights with us as some way to prove how tough they are. Or maybe they think they're tougher then they actually are." He sipped his beer.

"Maybe its natures way of weeding out undesirable elements from the Gene pool." Vic said. "The stupid eliminate themselves so the strong survive." She stared at her beer. "They're just Darwinian Road kill."

Silence. Vic tended to do that to a conversation.

"Right." Sandra eventually said. "My turn on the drinks. Another round of the same?" Rick nodded vigorously.

-----

Outside, a man watched the bar. He was a massive man, tall and heavily muscled. His face had small, dark eyes, a goatee beard and was topped with short, stubbly hair. He wore a blood-red shirt, black leather pants and a black longcoat. As he glared into the bar, he casually fingered the side of his coat, gripping the handle of the gun concealed inside it.

Checking his watch, he fingered the gun again before heading in.

-----

Sandra was waiting for the bartender, when she felt a massive hand on her shoulder. Without turning, she simply said "Remove it before I have to remove it, you big tool." The hand tightened its grip, and she felt something pressing into her back. Something that was probably the barrel of a gun.

"I'd rather not do this here." The man behind her said in a guttural voice. "I want no witnesses. You move and I'll kill everyone here."

"Right." Sandra said, trying not to show any fear. Guns to her back were not a situation she was happy with. Her own pistol was with the gun check at the door. "I suppose this isn't your usual way of picking up, right?"

He didn't even pretend to be amused. "Where are your two companions?"

Sandra gestured with her head. "They're at a table more or less directly behind you, half way across the bar."

There was a silence. "Shabby looking guy with brown hair?" he asked. "Drawing?"

Sandra thought about this. Yeah, that was Rick, but where was... oh no... "Yeah, that's them."

"Where's the other one?" he snarled.

"I dunno, gone to use the Lithgow Bank or something." She said, trying to be as obtuse as possible.

"Huh?" He said.

Before Sandra could reply, she heard another voice behind him. "'scuse me sir?" it said. Female. Young. Odd accent. Oh no.

"What?" He asked.

"Free beer?" came the reply. Before the man could say anything else, there was a cracking sound. Sandra felt the hand leave her shoulder, as well as hearing the clatter of the gun hitting the floor.

Spinning around, Sandra saw her assailant. He was a massive man; she figured that he would have been over two meters tall standing upright. At the moment, he was clutching his face, which was drenched in blood and what Sandra guessed was beer. Vic stood behind him, clutching the glass handle of a beer mug in one hand.

She reached for the gun, only to have his foot come down on it. She looked up at him to see his face, a bloody mess of cuts with small eyes and a sharp goatee beard. He snarled, then roared in pain. Vic had stabbed him in the side with the glass handle. He swung his arm backwards, hitting her and knocking her back onto the floor.

Grabbing his leg, Sandra tried to wrench him off his feet and bear him to the ground. The result was less successful then she'd hoped, the man barely moving before caching himself on the bar and propping himself up.. Tool, she thought. He's massive! The man retaliated by kicking at her, sending her flying back onto the ground next to Vic.

"Any other ideas?" She asked.

"Sorry. Sniper, not a brawler." Vic replied.

"Right." Sandra said. "Lets just try whatever comes to mind."

The man stood up again, and wiped his bloodied face on the back of his sleeve. "You've done it now. I'll have to kill everyone here. No witnesses, remember." He slowly advanced, and then suddenly stopped as a wooden chair broke over his head. Rick was standing behind him, the broken back of a chair in his hand.

"Bet you weren't expecting that!" Rick shouted. The man turned around to face him. "Errr...."

"New plan." Sandra said. "We run."

"Very good plan. I like." Vic replied.

Sandra grabbed Rick, pulling him out of the way of a punch aimed squarely at his head. "I'm with that!" He shouted as they crashed through the bar door.

"Our guns." Vic said.

"Forget them!" Sandra replied. "We're in a hurry!"

The three of them crashed into a pile outside, startling a lone Roadskipper tied up outside the bar. "What now?" Rick asked. He was still clutching the back of the chair.

Vic looked back in to see the man fighting his way through the bar. "We run. Split up. Less of a target that way."

"Right." Sandra said. "I call dibs on the ostrich."

Before either of them could object, she leapt onto the back of the Roadskipper. It shouted out "WARK" as she grabbed the controls. "I'll see you guys later. Try to work on a plan by then!" The Roadskipper started with a jerk, almost throwing her off, before speeding off down the road.

-----

The man emerged from the bar, bloodied, injured and angry. Looking around, he could see the brown-haired man running in the distance. Without pausing to take aim, he emptied the magazine from the pistol in his general direction. not a single shot hit. "DAMN YOU!" he shouted at nothing in particular.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. A large bald man, the doorman from the bar was standing behind him. "Put the gun down. mate." He said.

"I said, no witnesses!" He shouted, then fired at the man. His pistol clicked. Empty. He slugged the man, and ran. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of sirens.

-----

"Stop, you stupid machine!" Sandra shouted as she clung onto the back of the running Roadskipper for dear life. She'd never ridden on one of these small Zoids before, and she never intended to do it again. "Stop stop stop stop stop!" This apparently had the desired result as the Roadskipper stopped dead, slamming Sandra forwards into the seat. Slowly, and painfully, she slid off the Roadskipper's back, landing painfully on the ground.

"I never want to do that again." she muttered as she looked up at it.

"Wark?"

"Oh, shut up." She picked herself up, rubbing her very sore backside while thinking. The would-be assassin in the bar... she recognised him from somewhere. But where? She wracked her brain. Damn it. Something came to her... Oh no. Couldn't be, she thought. Unless...

Desperate for an answer, she pulled out her mobile phone. Why she hung onto it was beyond her. The only people she ever called with it rarely had anything to stay. Besides, coverage in the wastelands was so spotty that it was rarely worth calling anyone.

Well, time to burn her remaining credit. Sandra punched in a long series of numbers. If her hunch was right, they were in a whole lot more trouble then they thought.

-----

After fifteen minutes of careful evasion, Vic returned to the hotel that they'd each booked rooms in. Slipping in through a back window (She figured that the check-in could easily be bribed or bullied into informing on her), she snuck up to her room. Checking to see that the lock hadn't been interfered with or opened, she entered the room. A quick scan showed that nothing in the room seemed to be out of place or moved. Good.

She knelt down next to the bed and reached under it. After a few seconds of fossicking around, she found what she was after and pulled it out. It was a large, unmarked, black, high-impact case. Just what this situation called for. Grinning to herself in one of her big, broad, toothy, insane grins, she picked up the case and left.

-----

Rick sat in the cockpit of his Command Wolf, bundled under the moth-eaten survival blanket he kept in the cockpit for emergencies, trying not to be terrified. He'd gotten in a lot of fights before, sure. And he'd had many battles in his Zoid. But those were a kind of "exciting" danger, where he was hidden behind a Zoid's protective armour. But this was the first time that he'd felt directly threatened. I mean, that guy had a gun. And he'd tried to kill Sandra and Vic...

He couldn't handle it. Plain and simple. Sandra could. She'd seen all sorts of combat before she'd become a Wandering Desert Loonie. She used to be in the army or the police or something. She was trained for this kind of stuff. And Vic, well... she was insane, end of story. But she was insane in a professional kind of way. He knew she'd seen some sort of combat before he met her, and he had no doubt that she used to be some sort of soldier.

But he was just a comic book writer-artist. What was he doing out here in the middle of the desert being shot at? He'd come out here for inspiration, not for getting pumped full of lead in a run-down bar. This was nuts! Best just to hide in his cockpit and wait till morning. Yeah. He stuck his head under his blanket.

A minute later, he pulled it off. Damn it! What he was doing was the wussy, cowardly thing to do. He shouldn't be staying here while Vic and Sandra were out there, possibly facing mortal danger. No, it was the wrong thing to do. Fishing around behind the Command Wolf's command couch, he found the spare pistol that he kept in the survival kit.

Rick opened the cockpit and climbed down. As his feet hit the ground, he heard the Command Wolf growl. "No boy," he said. "You stay for the moment. This is something I've got to do myself." He looked at the blue dog-like Zoid. "Besides, I just don't think they'd appreciate you stomping around the town.

-----

Sandra closed the phone. Tool. This sounded like trouble. A whole frelling world of motherloving trouble. She leant against the wall, her eye closed. Great. Frelling marvelous. Tool.

Right, she thought. Only one thing to do about a situation like this. Leaving the Roadskipper behind (It was kind of distinctive, besides, its owner might have some things to say to her about it), she began to make her way through the back alleys and side passages of the town. Nothing, thankfully.

After what seemed like an eternity, she reached the back of the hotel they were staying at. Oddly enough, one of the back windows was opened and appeared to have been forced. Worrying. She cautiously slipped in. Making her way though the hotel, she reached her room. The door was still locked and showed no signs of having been forced. That was a good start. She cautiously opened it.

The room was empty, and just as she'd left it. Excellent. She checked her case. Inside it, she'd concealed a pair of pistols for an emergency. By her figuring, if this wasn't an emergency that called for them, nothing was. Both of them were there and appeared to be as she'd left them.

Taking out the two guns, she concealed them both within her longcoat. With any luck, she thought, she wouldn't have to use them. Then again, with her luck, they'd probably get a lot of use tonight.

-----

Phillipe was not impressed with the holding cells in the sheriff's office. The room was small, poorly lit, badly ventilated and filthy. The walls were covered in graffiti, the sink was backed up and the small, single bunk was lacking a mattress or blanket and was incredibly hard to lie on. And the toilet was completely unmentionable.

To make things even more hellish, he was forced to share this cell with the eight low-lives that he had previously been bound to the back of his Gustav with. Save for Samuel, the short scrawny one who hung around with a pair of obvious genetic defectives who were supposedly his brothers, none of them had anything interesting or even moderately intelligent to say.

As if it wasn't bad enough already, he was certain that he would be the recipient of swift and harsh frontier justice by next morning. Nobody had listened to him when he had politely, but sternly, requested to call his attorney. In fact, several of the so-called law officers had laughed at him. The indignity of the situation was unbearable.

He stared out the small, barred window. While it only offered a view of the backlots of the sheriff's office and the barn that passed for the local militia's Zoid hanger, it was far more interesting then fighting with a pair of ogres for occupancy of the bed. Suddenly, a face blocked his view. A large, angry face, featuring small eyes, a pointy goatee beard and a mass of recent-looking cuts.

"Quiet." The man said. "I've set a small bomb at the base of the wall. It'll go of in about half an hour. When you get out, you'll find that the hanger for the militia's Zoids has been left unlocked." He looked at the hanger and then back to Phillipe. "I suggest you all stay away from the wall for the moment."

"Am I to assume that this is a 'breakout' then?" He asked.

"You got it." The man replied.

"And if we should encounter any of the local constabulary?"

"Kill them all." He snarled. "We want no witnesses."

-----

A lone figure leapt from rooftop to rooftop, travelling the town by the most unusual method possible. It descended to street level only to cross roads, and only then when it couldn't find another way around. It was a small, female figure, carrying a large case on its back all the time scanning the streets ahead as if looking for something.

Stopping on one corner, looked around the town to get is bearings. The sheriff's office was there, the pub was there, the Zoid hanger was there... Now, it had to decide where its prey had gotten to.

The figure grinned with anticipation. The hunt was on.

-----

Having retrieved her weapons from the hotel, Sandra had realised that she was at a loss as to what to do next. Presumably, the big hairy tool was still out there looking for her, Rick and Vic. The problem was where he was. Or, more to the point, where the frelling hell he had gotten to. While she had been busy running, he could have gotten anywhere.

She slumped against a wall to consider his MO. He'd tried to attack them in the bar first. He'd said something about wanting no witnesses, which matched the way he usually worked. Presumably then he'd have to head back there at some point and finish the job he started.

Right. Only one thing to do. She had to go back there and try to head him off. She started, then suddenly stopped. Of course, she realized, that he might have thought of that too. He might have wanted her to go back there to lead her into a well-planned ambush. Tool. This was bloody marvelous.

She'd walked into ambushes before, she thought as she rubbed the underside of her scars with the back of her gloved hand. It was a habit she had to give up trying sooner or later.

She dashed from shadow to shadow, trying to reach the pub. She figured that if he was anywhere, he'd be at the back of the place. Great. A back door bandit. Just what she needed. If Vic was here now, she'd probably snigger in her insane little way about that.

Cautiously, she slid around to the back of the pub, remaining pressed against the walls, one pistol out at all times. Reaching the back, she cautiously peered around into the darkness. The fact that it was night and he had been wearing dark clothes had not escaped her. Bloody marvelous. Just what she needed.

There. Something was moving in the distance. Something large, wearing a black coat. It had to be him. She slowly raised the pistol, trying to get a good shot at his head. Suddenly, he turned around.

Sandra panicked and squeezed the trigger. The man twisted backwards, staggering a bit. He must have fired at the same time, she realized, as a chunk of wall next to her shattered, spraying her with concrete chunks. She ducked back around the corner.

Tool, she thought. Did I get him? She saw him go down, but she wasn't sure if he was dead, wounded or what... Only one way to check. She cautiously advanced around the corner, only to be sprayed with more concrete as another round dug into the wall. Great. Time for plan B.

-----

The lone figure heard a shot, and stopped in its tracks. It was nearby, she realised. In fact, it had come from the direction she was heading in. So her hunch about the pub was correct.

Dropping to one knee, she dropped the case onto the roof an opened it. Inside was a collection of metal components. She quickly and quietly removed them from the case and assembled them, combining them to form a rather large and imposing looking rifle with a scope on the top. It appeared to be bigger then she was.

Abandoning the case for the moment, she slung the rifle over her shoulder, then continued on her way.

-----

Sandra was collecting her thoughts when she heard the explosion in the distance. "What the?" She asked, then was bought back to reality by another shot ripping chunks out of the wall.

"I told you I wanted no witnesses!" The man shouted. "Looks like I'm going to have to go out of my way to do it."

Sandra paused for breath. Okay, time to do something stupid. "Yeah, that's you all over, Geoff Garren." She said, emphasizing his name and hoping she had it right. "You get all worked up about this whole 'no witnesses' thing and then go out of your way to kill everyone except your target. And you seem to only go after your targets when there are as many people around as possible."

"What are you saying?" He angrily shouted.

Good, its working, she thought. Now to really get him riled. "On three different occasions you've gone after one man in a public place where there were numerous witnesses. In each case, you've killed or wounded several people around your target while he gets away. You're wanted on six counts of murder, eight counts of attempted murder and at least four counts of conspiracy to murder. Each time, your description was given by numerous witnesses, especially your cry of 'no witnesses!'"

"That's all lies!" He shouted.

Sandra heard the anger in his voice. Now to go with it. "You're also wanted for participating in the underground Chronos Zoid fighting circuit. You piloted a Zoidzilla named 'Elroy' and reached the championship round before being beaten by a 16-year-old kid in a Trinity Liger. After the match, you tried, unsuccessfully, to kill him in front of the entire audience, shouting 'no witnesses' as you went."

"Shut up!" She shouted. "I wanted no witnesses!"

"You use a 4.5mm customised electromag pistol that, due to either a lack of numeracy skills or just plain stupidity you call a '45mm silencer.'" She continued. "It's a pretty distinctive weapon that only a few people outside of espionage and special forces units use, which means its easier to trace back to you." She paused. If he wasn't about to go kong-crap, then this final bit would. "And four years ago, you were shot in the right buttock by an Raycliffian police officer who foiled yet another ridiculously ill-conceived hit attempt."

She waited for the response. Nothing. Right. Time to drop the big one. "I should know, I was the officer who shot you."

"GAAAAAH!" He shouted. Numerous shots peppered the wall. Sandra mentally counted each one off. After eight, she leapt round the corner, gun at the ready.

The figure leapt onto the roof of a building behind the bar. She could hear the shouting match going on below. Good. People who shout during a gunfight rarely pay attention to what's going on around them.

She dropped to lie flat on the roof, the gun out in front of her. Peering through the low-light magnifier scope, she could make out the large man from before. He was behind a garbage bin, making himself a difficult shot while shouting at someone. It was Sandra, she realised. Only Sandra would say stuff like that in the middle of a gunfight.

She peered into the scope, keeping her ears open to the one-sided debate. All the pathetically failed ht attempts. All the witnesses. The kid in the Trinity Liger. "I'm insulted." She muttered. "They send an idiot out after me. I deserve a better class of hitman." She licked her lips. "Not this sort of Darwinian Roadkill."

Then everything happened at once.

The man fired eight rounds. Sandra stepped out of hiding and shouted at him. There was a second explosion. This one was nearby.

She looked up form her position to see a Trooperzoid standing at the end of the street, firing at anything it could see. A scan across the roofline showed a second one heading down another street, presumably firing at something else. Ooooh dear. This looked like trouble.

-----

Sandra heard the explosion. "What the?" She turned around, then looked back at Geoff. "What's going on, you big tool?"

"I took the liberty of getting a few friends out to help me. By the time they're done, there will be no witnesses!" He laughed insanely.

The small communicator Sandra kept in her coat beeped. She ducked around the corner again, surprised that she'd bought it with her. She'd honestly forgotten about it. She pulled it out of the coat and put it to her ear. "Who is it?"

"Vic." Came the reply. "I'm above you."

"What's happening?" Sandra asked.

"Trooperzoids out on the town, smashing stuff up." Vic replied. "Go get your Zoid. I'll cover you."

"What?"

"I have a big gun." Vic replied. "Go now."

Sandra didn't need any further instruction then that. Leaving Geoff for the moment, she sprinted out of the alley... and collided with Rick. The pair of them hit the ground in a pile.

"What the frelling hell do you think you're doing, you big tool?!" she shouted.

"I was going to stop that hitman" Rick replied. "Then all of a sudden I nearly got blown up by a Godos stomping the place."

"Yeah, I saw it." Sandra replied. One of them was moving around at the end of the street. Fortunately, it had its back to them. "There's several others on the loose, smashing the place up. Oh, and they're Trooperzoids."

Rick shrugged. "Same diff. But what are we going to do about them?"

"Get to our Zoids." Sandra replied. "We take 'em out, save the town and worry about our hitman later."

"Right." Rick said. "But where's Vic?"

Sandra looked back at the roof. "She's going to be covering us to make sure we can get there."

-----

Vic stared into the scope at the Trooperzoid. It was just him and her now, she thought. Most people would feel stupid taking on a Zoid with just a rifle. Of course, Vic wasn't most people, and this was no ordinary rifle.

It was a 23mm Halconnen CEF anti-Zoid rifle, in essence a miniaturised railgun. While it wasn't capable of taking out anything but the lightest Zoids, it still was powerful enough to give them something to think about. Especially a lighter Zoid like the Trooperzoid she was staring at.

She focused on the Trooperzoid. Sandra would be back with her Liger soon, she figured. Rick... well... Rick could have been anywhere. For now, however, it was just her on her own with no armour and a rifle versus several Zoids.

"I've got you poor bastards right where I want you."

-----


	9. Night on the Town

Streets of Rusty Springs

2200 Hours

"RUN!" Rick shouted. He and Sandra took off down the street, running for their lives. Behind them, a lone Trooperzoid was engrossed in a random act of senseless violence towards some building.

"If he sees us, we're completely tooled" Sandra shouted as she ran.

The Trooperzoid turned in their direction.

"Next time, keep your mouth shut!" Rick replied, as he continued to run.

"Sorry." She muttered. Behind them, the Trooperzoid, having apparently spotted them, opened fire with one of its cannons. The shot went between the pair of them, missing them both by a ludicrously small degree.

"So what do we do now?" Rick asked. "You're the one who's good with stupid plans."

"Well, prayer sounds like a good idea." Sandra replied.

The Trooperzoid slowly advanced, clearly intending to shoot them down in the street or, at the very least, run them over. Suddenly, the small Zoid shuddered as a burst of flame erupted from the side of the gun.

"...although a madwoman with a stupidly big gun also works." She finished.

The shot seemed to have some affect on the Trooperzoid. The pilot turned away from them to face the probable direction of its assailant. The two of them heard it open fire with its remaining front-facing gun, and the resulting explosions and burning scenery.

"Vic!" Rick shouted.

"Don't worry about her now!" Sandra shouted. "She's nuts. She can look after herself. Its us sane people who are in trouble."

The two of them ducked into an alley to catch their breath. After a minute of wheezing, Rick finally spoke. "That was pretty cold what you did back there." He glared at her. "Leaving Vic behind on her with that Trooperzoid."

"Vic chose to do it herself." Sandra angrily replied. "She said she'd stay there so we could get to our Zoids."

"Oh..." Rick said, taken back. "...think she'll be okay?"

Sandra sighed. "I'm sure she will. Vic's insane, remember? I don't think being shot by a Zoid is going to affect her much."

Rick peered out the end of the Alley. "All clear. Let's go." Sandra nodded.

The pair of them darted from the alley. Almost instantly, numerous shots filled the air. A burst of concentrated ducking, weaving, leaping, crouching and running around like beheaded chickens got them to the other side. Somehow.

"All clear, Rick?" Sandra said. A Trooperzoid was at the other end of the street.

"Okay, so I missed him." Rick shrugged.

"You missed an eight-and-a-half meter tall robot. How?!" Sandra shouted.

"He was hiding." Rick replied.

"Whatever." She snarled. "So how do we get past him and to the Zoids. I for one am getting sick of the 'run and dodge the death rays' routine." She paused for breath. "And I've only tried it once."

"Hmm." Rick replied. "Usually a comic book hero in this situation will have his own means of escape, if not some sort of ridiculously convenient vehicle to go for."

"That's nice Rick." Sandra replied. 'But out here in the real world, what are we meant to do?"

"We could try that thing." Rick said pointing further down the alley.

Sandra peered further down the alley. There was something tall and thin moving around down the far end. Rick had walked down there to see what it was. "Great." She muttered. "The stupid tool is probably about to get us all killed. Wonderful."

A few minutes later, Rick walked back down the alley, bringing whatever it was with him. Sandra realised, with some degree of fear what it was. it was a Roadskipper, in fact, it was the very same one she had rode on and fallen of earlier that night. "What do you think?" Rick asked, beaming. "With this little baby, we can get away from the baddies and get to our Zoids easy. If they do see us, they'll have sweet bog all chance of hitting us and none whatsoever of catching up."

"Nuh-uh." Sandra replied, waving her arms at him. "No way. I am not, repeat not getting back onto that thing."

-----

"WARK!"

"Get me off this damn thing!" Sandra shouted. The Roadskipper was charging through the streets and alleys of Rusty Springs at breakneck speed. On its back, Rick was at the controls with Sandra hanging on to it for dear life as it bucked along.

"Come on, I think he likes you!" Rick shouted back.

"Likes me?" She shouted. "The damn things' trying to kill me!" It rounded a corner at speed, nearly throwing her off. "See?!" The Roadskipper was designed as a one-man vehicle. Sandra (Having refused to drive it straight out) was left clinging onto the back and, more often then she would admit, Rick.

"Don't worry about it." Rick replied. "I've got him perfectly under control."

There was silence for a minute, then Sandra spoke again. "I find that very hard to believe."

The Roadskipper stopped at the end of an alley. The two of them peered out to take a look. Ahead, in the distance was the hanger where their Zoids were stored. "Right. Final dash. Are we ready?" Rick asked.

"No." Sandra replied. "But that won't stop you."

"Got it in one."

The Roadskipper dashed out onto the road, and began running. Almost immediately, one of the Trooperzoids spotted them, and gave chase.

"Rick, we've got a tool on our dates!" Sandra shouted.

"Crap!" Rick shouted. "Better hang on!" He kicked the Roadskipper, putting it into top gear. Behind them, the Trooperzoid picked up speed, firing at them.

"Rick! He's firing!" Sandra shouted.

"I know, I know!" He replied. "Hang on tight!" The Roadskipper sped down the road, the Trooperzoid firing wildly at them. Rick kept slewing the controls, zigzagging the small Zoid back and forth across the street to avoid the Trooper's fire, and innumerable obstacles.

"Car!" Sandra shouted, with Rick quickly steering out of the way. "Pothole! Roadwork sign! Garbage skip! Pile of barrels likely to explode for no readily apparent reason!" Each time, Rick deftly avoided them, with Sandra clinging on to the back. The Trooper simply stepped on them, or blew them up with missed shots. "This is like a bad chase level in a platform game." She muttered.

"I'll try to get us a power up then." Rick replied, almost laughing.

Sandra blinked, then laughed. "Good one. If we weren't about to all die horrible screaming deaths, I'd buy you a drink for that one."

"Don't write that drink off yet." Rick replied. He threw the Roadskipper into a straight run down to the end of the street. At the last possible second, he slewed the Roadskipper to the right, so it was abruptly running parallel to the empty Zoid hanger to his right. The Trooperzoid didn't take it as well. Focussing too much on his target and not enough on the road, he didn't see the hanger ahead. Stopping at the last possible second, the Trooperzoid slid, baseball-style right into the side of the hanger. The structure collapsed on top of him in a pile of corrugated tin.

Rick stopped the Roadskipper, and turned to face the wreck. "Good work, Rick." Sandra said, laughing.

"If course." He replied. "Naturally, I planned it that way."

"You did not, you big tool!" she said, and slapped him playfully on the back of his head.

"Caught me." he replied. "But it's fun to claim."

"Right." Sandra said. "So after we get our Zoids and kill these tools, I'll buy you a beer."

"That's a good enough motivation for me." Rick said as he restarted the Roadskipper. "Now hang on."

-----

Vic leapt across the gap between buildings, her rifle hanging off her back while she left the confused looking Trooperzoid behind her. No sooner had she landed on the roof, then she dropped to the ground, setting her rifle up. Squinting into the scope, she sighted the damaged Trooperzoid.

She'd been enjoying keeping him busy. It was a silly little game. She stopped and sniped, then ran away, He chased after her, and tried to smash her. Once she thought she'd lost him, she stopped and sniped again. She'd already taken out both of his forward guns, which had left him trying to catch her by swatting at random buildings. It left him looking very confused and silly. Now to make him even sillier.

She focused on the right hip. The Zoid was slowly walking forward, which made it something of a difficult shot. "Tricky." She said to herself. "I like." Licking her lips, she focused on the Zoid as it approached. Closer... closer... Its clamp-like hands were waving around in front of it, growing ever larger in her sight. Nearly... nearly.

"Bang."

A gout of flame erupted from the Trooper's right hip. It suddenly stopped, then staggered forward, walking with a pronounced limp. "Gotcha." She said. "Looks very kinda silly now." She picked up her rifle again, ready to run to the next spot.

Behind her, the Trooperzoid hobbled forward, trying ineffectually to catch her. Rather then run, she turned to watch the hobbling trooper. It had this strangely fascinating walk that was quite amusing to watch. After hobbling a bit, the trooper stopped.

"You ruin all my fun." Vic pouted. She dropped down to the roof, readying her rifle. "I might as well get this over and done with." As she sighted the trooper, it did something she wasn't expecting. It turned around, pointing its tail at her, complete with the twin tail guns.

"Damn." Vic leapt up, grabbed her gun and ran. Behind her, the Trooperzoid opened fire with its tail guns, blasting the building underneath her into matchsticks. Vic was propelled forwards by the blast, crashing down on the roof. Her rifle slid away from her, ending up on the far end of the roof. She slowly crawled towards it, only to feel the roof collapse under her legs. She scrambled forwards, trying to get back into the still standing part of the roof. Then, much to her surprise, the rest of the roof gave away, sending her tumbling down into the ruined building.

-----

Big Dick shook his head clear. He'd been chasing a little bird-Zoid-thing down the street. Suddenly, it'd turned and then he'd skidded into the side of a hanger. His Zoid had crashed into it, fallen down and been buried under the wreckage. With the Trooperzoid's limited mobility and limb design, it'd taken him several minutes to get back to his feet and clear of all the rubble.

He angrily stomped forward to the other hanger he'd seen, looking for something to smash. Walking up to the hanger door, he shoved the Trooperzoid's clamp-like hands into it, then wrenched it away, grinning as he went. When he turned back, he was surprised by what he saw.

Inside the hanger, staring straight at him, was a Command Wolf. A blue Command Wolf with a pair of very big guns. In fact, the same one that had blown him and Big Dick up earlier that afternoon. Crap.

Before he could do anything, the Wolf fired. The Trooperzoid shuddered under the impacts, and keeled over, landing flat on its back. A quick glance at the controls told him that it wasn't going anywhere.

The Command Wolf walked out of the hanger, looking down at him. "Now you stay there, got it?" The pilot said over his speakers. It was followed by a Shield Liger that casually stepped past it, before stopping and casually kicking dirt on its face. The significance of the gesture was lost on Big Dick, but he suspected that it meant something bad.

-----

"Well, any ideas?" Rick asked. He and Sandra were sitting in their Zoids, looking around at the town. The average height of the buildings just happened to be about the eight to ten meter mark, or just enough to conceal a Trooperzoid. They knew their enemies were out there, they just didn't know where.

"Last I heard, the town had five Troopers in its inventory." Sandra replied. "You bagged one, which leaves four. I think its safe to say that there's at least one that Vic has either damaged or destroyed by now."

"Right." Rick replied. "I figure each of us can take down two Troopers on his own. All we need to do is locate 'em and take them out."

Sandra looked over the town. "I think it's a fair bet that they're not coordinating their actions and are just concentrating on random property damage. I think we're safe to split up."

"We can do more damage that way." Rick finished. "I'll take this side of town, you go round the other way."

"And if you need any help, just shout." Sandra added as her Liger ran off.

"Yeah, right." Rick said. "Me versus two troopers? Get real."

His Command Wolf loped off into the town, searching for its prey.

-----

Sandra's Shield Liger ran down one of the major streets, searching for the enemy Zoids. Their size and shape made it easy to hide behind buildings, while their blue and grey colour scheme meant that they blended in well with the rest of the town. The fact that it was now well and truly after dark made it just that extra bit harder.

A pair of shots whipped past her Liger's face, coming from the gap between a pair of buildings. "Damn it!" she shouted as she span the Liger around. There was no clear way between the buildings short of barging through them, and she very much doubted that they could take the Zoid's weight. Instead, she pushed her Liger to the full, skidding it around a corner at the end of the street. Another straight burst forward and then another turn put her on the same street as the Trooperzoid.

The Trooperzoid pilot, to his credit, reacted appropriately to seeing the Shield Liger face to face. He turned and ran. "Not so fast", Sandra said to herself. She opened the Liger's two missile pods and locked onto the retreating Zoid. Just before she squeezed the trigger, however, her Liger growled at her. "What's up with you?" she asked, looking down at the control panel.

The Liger turned its head to either side, Showing Sandra the rest of the street. "Right. I get you. Firing missiles in narrow streets full of houses is bad." She turned back to the retreating Zoid. "Just makes it a little bit more of a challenge."

She set off down the street, chasing after it. The Shield Liger's top speed was half again as fast as the Trooper's, allowing her to close the distance quickly. Before she could strike, however, the Trooperzoid swerved around a corner.

"Just give it up, you big tool!" She shouted. "You're only going to get me angry this way!"

-----

While he prided himself on being smarter then the average thug, Psycho Sam also knew that, at heart, he was just another thug. He liked breaking stuff, beating people up and stealing stuff. When he'd gotten the opportunity to rampage across the town in a Trooperzoid, it was really too good to pass up. After being shot up and imprisoned, it felt good to get out and about and commit some wholesale destruction.

Unfortunately for him, his plans for a night of therapeutic carnage had been cut short by the Shield Liger that was currently chasing him. Sam was smart enough to know that a Shield Liger was far, far more then a Trooperzoid could handle on its own. Fortunately, however, he had a plan. He always had a plan.

Switching on his communicator, he radioed two of the Black Scorpion pilots. "Hey you two!" he shouted. "I got a job for the pair of ya!"

-----

The Trooper ducked around another corner just as Sandra fired at it. The shots went wide, gouging chunks out of the road ahead. Cursing under her breath, the slewed the Liger around the corner to continue the pursuit. As she closed on the Trooperzoid, she noticed something small scuttle past. It was about man-sized, she figured, and was traveling in the opposite direction.

Before she could do anything about it, an explosion rocked the cockpit. Checking her monitors, Sandra saw that something, likely a man-portable missile, had hit the Zoid's rear armour. Looking behind her, she saw the likely source of the attack. Behind her was a man, perched precariously on top of a Shotwalker while trying to reload a rocket launcher.

"You little tool!" She shouted, before being rocked by another pair of hits. The Trooperzoid had abruptly gotten his courage back now that she was distracted. Right. New stupid plan. Putting the Liger's shield up while backing off from the Trooper, she opened fire with the tail-mounted cannon. The Shotwalker bucked, dropped its pilot and scuttled off down a side street. The pilot picked himself up, took one look at the Liger, and ran off after it, leaving his rocket behind.

She turned back to face the Trooperzoid. It was slowly backing away from her, waving its arms frantically. "You really, really shouldn't have pushed your luck. You should have just stuck to running away." Dropping the shields, she opened fire with the Shield Liger's two top-mounted cannons. The Trooper was rocked with numerous impacts, before simply keeling over backwards into a smoking heap.

After gently poking the Trooper to confirm that it wasn't moving, Sandra contacted Rick. "I got one of 'em. Keep an eye out, though. We've got some tools on Shotwalkers running around with rocket launchers."

"Gotcha." Rick replied. "And if we see 'em, they're fair game?"

"Yup." She said. "But I suspect looking big and scary may also help."

-----

Halfway across the town on the upper floors of a wrecked house, a pile of rubble slowly stirred. After a few minutes, Vic rose from the wreckage. She was battered and bruised, her clothes tattered and a trial of blood trickling down her face from a cut on her forehead. She slowly wiped her face on the back of her hand, then licked it off. "Yummy."

Looking around, she took stock of the contents of the room. A bed lay under a pile of debris, along with an extensive sound system. Several posters adorned the remaining walls, alternating between rock stars and women in bikinis. The floor was covered in dirty clothes. And there was someone in here with her.

He was a young man, probably about sixteen or so, with long, scraggly hair and nervous brown eyes. He was currently backed into a corner, eyeing Vic warily. He was about to say something, when she put one finger to her lips and looked him in the eye.

Outside there was a metallic skittering sound, like a giant spider. It came to a stop outside. Vic leaned back against the wall, peering out through the hole where a window once was. Outside was a man, perched on the back of a small, spider-like Zoid. He carried a rocket launcher on his back, and was currently looking around.

"Perfect." She muttered. From here, it'd be a clear shot to him. She could then steal his Zoid, get to her Gunsniper and wreak bloody vengeance. Signaling to the boy to stay quiet, she looked around for her gun. No sign. Damn. Then it caught her eye. The gun was lying in the rubble that had once been the ground floor, looking somewhat worse the fall. That ruined that plan. She desperately searched around for something, anything that she could use. Then she saw it.

Propped up next to an amplifier and surprisingly unharmed, despite the destruction wreaked around it. It was... beautiful, she thought. A solid wood electric guitar, kept in immaculate condition, especially considering the rest of the room and its occupant. (She figured that, even allowing for half of it caving in, this room was probably a mess all the time.) She gently lifted it out from its stand, ensured it was disconnected from the amp, and then gave it an experimental pluck.

Grin. A toothy, manic grin that made her look like she was about to bite.

She walked up to the kid. "It's perfect" she whispered. "I'll take it."

Before he could say anything, she walked up to the edge of the remaining floor. The Shotwalker was outside, its pilot still searching around, possibly looking for her. She judged the distance, the angle the drop... Then crouched. Doing a quick mental countdown, she launched herself into the air, the guitar above and behind her. As she reached the peak of her arc, she bought the guitar downwards. At the last possible second, the pilot turned around and spotted her, silhouetted against the full moon. By then, it was too late.

CHUNG!

The world seemed to move in slow motion as she bought the guitar down on his head. The solid wood met the reinforced carbon-fiber neurohelmet with a resounding crashing, splintering noise, accompanied by the sound of the chords breaking. The helmet was enough to stop the pilot form getting his skull caved in, but enough of the blow passed on to him to knock him flat, sending him falling from the Shotwalker's command chair.

Landing in the seat, Vic discarded the remains of the guitar and grabbed the controls. Looking up at the ruined house, she shouted to its occupant in a disturbingly cheery way. "Bye bye! Thanks for the lend of the guitar!"

Before he could say anything or even respond, the Shotwalker sped off into the night.

-----

"Yeah!" The Trooperzoid pilot shouted over the PA. It was currently engaged in acts of random violence against a group of warehouses, randomly smashing them to bits or blowing them up. The pilot had been enjoying this for some time now, Rick figured, judging by the trail of devastation he'd left in his wake.

The Wolf casually trotted out from the building it had been hiding behind. Rick needed a clean shot, and this guy looked like he wasn't posing much of a threat. "Having fun there?" He asked.

"Yeah!" The Trooper pilot replied as he reduced another warehouse to rubble. "This is fun!"

"Nothing like mindless violence against inanimate objects, huh?"

"Yeah!" He replied. "Oh wait a sec..." The Trooper turned to face the Command Wolf. "Hey, you're that Wolf from earlier today."

The Command Wolf nodded. "Ayup. Got it in one."

"You blew my turtle up!" He said.

"Well, yeah, there was that too." Rick replied.

"I should kill youse for that!" he shouted angrily.

"Well, yeah, you could." Rick said. "Or I could shoot your Zoid first." The Command Wolf fired its twin beam cannons into the Trooperzoid's chest. The smaller Zoid staggered, billowing smoke from the massive hole, before toppling over forward.

The Command Wolf shook its head. "You know what?" Rick said. "They just aren't getting any smarter." He opened a comm channel to Sandra. "Just bagged Mad Elvis number three. How are you doing over there?"

-----

The Liger crouched on the remains of the fallen Trooperzoid and roared loudly. "Not to badly, all things considered." Sandra replied. "I came across a battered, limping Trooper and jumped on him. It was over before the battle even started." She looked down at the wreck. "I suspect I'm looking at Vic's handiwork right now."

"Any sign of her?" Rick asked.

"None, sorry." Sandra replied. "I'm sure she's okay though."

Rick was quiet for a few seconds, then continued. "I didn't run into any Snotwalkers. You?"

"Rick, you said 'Snotwalkers.'" She replied. "But I haven't seen any either. Maybe that guy was a one-off."

"Could be." Rick said. "Any sign of our last lucky contestant?"

"Nope." Sandra said. "But I suspect he's trying his best to get the hell out of Dodge by now."

-----

Phillipe was running. While the others had been content to wreak random destruction, he'd been more interested in leaving town. He had his freedom and he had a new Zoid. With these two things, he could start his career anew. The Trooperzoid was a far cry from his Snipe Master, but it still amounted to something. He'd miss Jenkins, certainly, but one could always hire more help.

However, the thought had occurred to him while he was running. His Snipe Master had been in good condition when he was captured. Sure, its tail had been bent out of shape and the gun disabled, but it was otherwise unscathed, unlike the rest of the junk that it had been sharing trailer space with. He'd ended up doubling back, heading for the town's sole Zoid emporium and scrapyard.

A few minutes later, he'd climbed back into his Snipe Master and had it underway. Then he'd heard the explosions and the sound of battle. Now it wasn't just those ruffians venting on the local scenery. Now it was the four of them fighting some hostile force. Well, they could fight them for all he cared. He was leaving this squalid hamlet for greener pastures.

He'd been monitoring the transmissions that had been going back and forth so he would have some idea of where the enemy was so he could avoid them. With no weapons, he certainly didn't feel like fighting. At the moment, his Snipe Master was no better off then some common Rev Rapter. he had watched, with some degree of alarm, as communications from each of them had died out. First, it was that ruffian, Big Dick. Then, Samuel had gone off, as well as two of the Black Scorpion pilots who had been running around on stolen Shotwalkers. Then that repulsive Snot fellow had gone dead, followed by the Black Scorpion himself. Phillipe suddenly realised that he was on his own.

And so he'd run. He didn't care where he was going, just so long as it was away. He'd performed a mad, zigzagging dash across the town, up one street and down another. The last thing he wanted to do was follow a predictable pattern and allow one of them to catch him.

Now he was on the outskirts of town. Freedom was only a few meters ahead. Like many desert communities, Rusty Springs was surrounded by a defensive wall. All her had to do was turn back onto the main street, and he could dash out the front gate ands away into the outside world.

His Snipe Master rounded the corner, and then skidded to a halt. In front of it was a heavily-armed Gunsniper, snarling at it angrily. The Snipe Master slowly backed off, cowering back from its overarmed predecessor.

A comms screen opened on his console. On the screen, it showed an insane-looking young woman, with scary yellow-green eyes, a maniacal grin and blood smeared on her forehead. "Hello." she said in a way that managed to fill him with fear.

"So nice to meet you, madam." He replied, trying to remain polite despite the urgency of the situation. "As much as I would love to say and partake in your pleasant company, I have a rather pressing engagement that I must get to. So if you could be so kind as to move your Zoid that I may pass, I will be on my way."

"You know what?" She began, seemingly ignoring what he had said. "The Snipe Master is a better sniper then the Gun Sniper."

"Well, yes, that is true." He replied. "However, I don't see the relevance to the situation."

"The thing is, the Gunsniper is just so much better at defending itself at close range." She continued. "I mean, look at all these guns." She indicated to the Gunsniper's sidecar-mounted Weasel pods, each bristling with cannons.

"Well yes, this is also true, but-"

"Bang."

The Gunsniper fired all eight side-car mounted guns at once. Phillipe was thrown forward into his console as the Zoid crashed backwards onto the ground. Red lights came on all over his system status board, indicating that, in no uncertain terms, his Zoid was out of action. The Gun Sniper loomed over him, grinning a toothy grin that mirrored its pilots.

"Oh look." She said. "I seem to have broken all my toys."

-----

A few minutes later, the three of them had met in the center of town by the Sherrif's office. Of the three of them, only Sandra's Shield Liger had taken any damage in the fight, and even then she said it wasn't serious. The town had fared less well, with numerous buildings destroyed across the town.

The local militia had begun rounding up the various desert marauders. With four of their five Trooperzoids destroyed and numerous officers wounded by a bomb explosion, their ranks were somewhat depleted. Sandra had volunteered the three of them to watch over the town for the time being. Sandra had waived their hiring fee in exchange for the sheriff's office not billing them for the damage.

The three of them had been standing around the Sherrif's office, watching the parade of law officials, damage control crews, salvage vehicles and medical personnel flowing into and out of the place. A lone Trooperzoid, the one Phllipe had abandoned, had just joined them. Its pilot was an overweight middle-aged man called Danny, who spoke with a broad drawl.

"Well, that seems to be the lot of 'em." He said. "We got what's left of our Zoids back, and I 'spose we can do something with them. There's a lot of people down there who are a bit unhappy about you folks destroying 'em. Then again, they're also glad you saved the town, so I suppose it balances out."

"Least we could do." Sandra replied.

"Say, um, is there something wrong with the Gunsniper?" he asked. The small Zoid was staring up at a point higher up on the mountain overlooking the town, snarling.

"That's just Vic." Rick replied. "She's just weird."

"No..." Sandra said. "Vic, what's up."

"Got something." She said. she was peering into her scope. "Very edge of my sensor range. Immobile. Can't make it out though." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Run!" She shouted. "RUN!"

"What?" Danny shouted.

"Goddamit! Just do it!" Sandra replied back as her Shield Liger took off. Next to her, the Command wolf and Gunsniper also started running.

"Where?" He shouted. "What's happeni-"

He never finished his sentence. A massive burst of energy shot down from the mountain, obliterating the Trooperzoid and the Sheriff's office. The three Zoids were shaken by the explosion, but otherwise unharmed.

Up on the cliff, a huge, blue Scorpion Zoid squatted on a ledge, its massive tail cannon smoking. The pilot's voice boomed out across the town. "I said I wanted no witnesses!" He shouted. "And this time, there will be no witnesses!"


	10. Big Blue Destiny

Rusty Springs

Dying time

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Rick shouted as another beam shot down from the hill. His Wolf leapt out of the way, leaving the beam to obliterate a large chunk of landscape.

"Huge scary scorpion." Vic muttered. "Are you going to be the one?"

"Come on you two!" Sandra shouted. "Get your dates into gear! We have to stop this thing!"

Rick's Wolf glared at the hole in the ground. "Yeah, well, that's easy for you to say!" He yelled back. "That thing's a monster! We don't stand a chance! We can't even get near it!"

"It's just a Zoid, damn it!" Sandra shouted. "Okay, it's a big one, but we can do it..."

"INCOMING!" Rick shouted over her. The three of them ran as the Deathstinger fired again. The beam tore through the centre of town, obliterating the two Zoid hangers. "At least he has a lousy aim."

"That's not funny." Sandra said, her Liger indicating towards the smoking crater.

"I think it is." Vic added, sniggering for no apparent reason.

Sandra muttered. "Right. We stop this tool."

"Great plan." Rick replied. "So how do we get there?"

Sandra thought for a second. "We charge up the hill. Use attack pattern Insanity Streak Three."

"Gotcha." Rick replied.

"O-kaaaaay" Vic added, grinning.

The three Zoids broke into a run, charging through the town, frantically avoiding the blasts that rained down from above. All the time they constantly weaved in and out of different streets, ducking behind buildings and trying to avoid running in a straight line for too long.

Three quarters of Rusty Springs was surrounded by fortified wall. The fourth quarter bordered on the side of a mountain, which formed a sort of natural barrier (and had, in past, been mined for various minerals). The three Zoids leapt onto the side of the mountain and charged up it, continuing their pattern of randomly changing direction and moving in no set pattern. For all the world, it looked like they were running around like a trio of headless chooks. Which was, in essence, the basis of Insanity Streak Three. Run around randomly to avoid fire while still heading towards a set direction.

Despite numerous near-misses, the three made it up the mountain more or less unharmed. (The same could not be said for the town below which had soaked the numerous charged particle cannon shots directed at them) Their Zoids leapt up onto a flat ridge, coming face to face with the enormous Deathstinger. Despite the fact that they were now too close for it to use its charged particle gun, it still boasted numerous other weapons.

"Well, we got up here." Rick said to Sandra. "Now what?"

She shrugged. "No idea, sorry. I didn't think we'd get this far."

"I said, I wanted no witnesses!" Geoff shouted. "And I mean it!". The Deathstinger fired is two massive back-mounted shot cannons. The blasts hit between the Command Wolf and Shield Liger, nearly knocking the two of the cliff.

"I say we hit it." Vic stated.

"Good plan." Sandra replied.

"Attack pattern?" Rick asked.

"Uhh..." She thought. "Lunatic Fringe Five with a twist of lemon."

The three of them scattered, firing wildly at the Deathstinger with whatever came to hand. Unlike Insanity Streak three, Lunatic Fringe Five with a twist of lemon wasn't even a plan. It was just another way of saying 'oh, whatever comes to mind' that wouldn't give away what they were doing to the enemy. Rick had said that the idea was to use a form of mindlessness that would fool the enemy into thinking they had a plan, when in fact they didn't.

Sandra's Shield Liger ran up one side, firing its turret mounted light beam cannons along the Deathstinger's side while Vic had run around to the scorpion's rear, opening fire on the tail assembly with her weasel pod's cannons. The first few shots hit, before the pilot put the E-shield up. The remaining shots were simply absorbed by the shield. On the other side, Rick's shots had about the same effect; the first few actually managed to hurt the Deathstinger before the pilot put its shield up.

Sandra was, in a way, hoping that he'd put the shield up. That way, she figured, he wouldn't be able to use his own weapons against them. While the Charged particle Cannon was out of the question at this range, the Deathstinger still had its two massive shock cannons, and its numerous smaller weapons to keep them busy with. Unfortunately for her, the plan had one minor flaw.

The Deathstinger lashed out with its right claw, smashing into the Shield Liger and sending it sprawling across the ridge. On the other side, one of the rear claws tripped Rick's command wolf, before the tail bashed it aside. Swinging back around, the tail caught Vic's Gunsniper as it was turning to run, sending it sprawling forwards onto its face. Momentarily dropping its shield, the Deathstinger fired another volley from its back-mounted cannons. Sandra barely had time to get her shield up before they struck. The shield held, but the system reported that it was severely weakened.

"Attack!" She shouted. "His shield down for the moment!" The Liger's two missile boxes popped out and fired, peppering the Deathstinger's head and body with hits. The Stinger fired back, smashing the Liger against the rock. Red lights lit up all over Sandra's displays; the previously damaged right hind leg was getting perilously close to breaking, and the Liger's armour was coming of in droves.

"I got him, I got him!" Rick shouted as his Wolf ran past the Deathstinger's side, firing the top-mounted assault cannons. The hits seemed to do more then Sandra's missiles, gouging holes in the armour and exposing the internal structure. Behind him, Vic opened fire with her back-mounted missiles, capitalising on the damage. The Deathstinger fired again, smashing Vic's Gunsniper backwards and shearing off one of the side-mounted cannon pods. A backhand from the left claw caught Rick, ripping armour from the flanks while knocking him back. Rather then following up their attacks, the Deathstinger once again put its shield up.

"Wooo... what hit me?" Rick muttered.

"Its claw, you big tool." Sandra replied.

"Sorry. There's not enough room up here to maneuver." Rick replied. "Any ideas?"

"None." Sandra said. "We can keep this up, but at hits rate we're going to be dead long before he is. We hurt him last time, but we're sure as heck not going to be able to keep this up." She looked at the Deathstinger. It had several large gashes across its back with exposed structure , as well as numerous dents on its head and body. By comparison, her Shield Liger had huge chunks of armour hanging off it and a leg on the verge of going, Vic's Zoid had lost several weapons and Rick's Wolf looked like it had been ripped open with a can opener.

"Very uneconomic exchange rate." Vic added.

"We just don't have the sort of armour to take the pounding he's dishing out." Rick stated. "And we don't have the space to do our usual 'run around screaming' plan. So I'm out."

"We could hope a bunch of Dark Zoids show up out of nowhere and kill him for us." Vic said. "But I wouldn't bet on it."

"We could throw ourselves at him and hope our corpses smother him to death." Sandra muttered.

The Deathstinger charged forwards, barrelling down on her Liger. She hastily put the shield up as one of the claws smashed down on her. The shield held, then shattered in a crackle of energy as the claw smashed through it. She swerved the Liger to one side, leaving the claw to scrape down one side of the Liger's face. Before it could strike again, Rick and Vic opened fire on its rear, more to distract it then anything else. The Deathstinger turned around to strike at them, momentarily relieving the pressure on the Shield Liger.

Sandra's Zoid groggily struggled to its feet, shaking its head and roaring. "Okay, boy, I know how you feel." She said. Popping out the beam cannons, the Liger charged forward firing them and the Impact Cannon at the Deathstinger's back. Reaching near point blank-range, she leapt over it, claws outstretched aiming to strike the tail, or at least bounce off it. The shots did nothing, as she had expected. However, the claws struck the Deathstinger with a crackle of energy. She felt the impact as they hit the huge Zoid's tail, tearing through the armour as they passed. The Liger landed in front of the Deathstinger with the Wolf and Gunsniper.

"What happened there?" She asked. "I thought I was going to bounce straight off."

"There was some pyro as you hit it." Rick replied. "Same as when the Deathstinger hit you with its claw before that."

"I guess the shields don't like each other." She said, surprised. "Not that it helps me much. All I can do is run and swipe."

"I dunno..." Rick said. "I think I have a plan."

-----

Rick rarely came up with plans, Sandra thought. Usually it was her who had al the bright ideas, or, on rare occasion, Vic. As her Shield Liger charged head-on towards the Deathstinger, she realised that she was glad he didn't think of more. This one was completely nuts. Even with her shield up and at full strength, charging a far larger, grossly over-armed Zoid that had a mass of pincers and claws waving around its front end had to be one of the stupidest things she'd ever done.

As Rick had predicted, the Deathstinger pilot kept his shield up as she charged. This was a good thing. If he dropped his shield, he'd likely blast them with the big guns. The Shield Liger crashed into the Deathstinger head on, energy from their shields crackling in the air around them as she pushed the Liger forwards toward the enemy Zoid. "NOW!" she shouted.

Rick's Command Wolf leapt over the Shield liger, landing on the Deathstinger's back. Before the large Zoid could react, the Wolf had sunk its teeth and claws into its body, ripping into it and tearing chunks of armour and structure out. He'd placed the landing well, being right in front of the huge impact cannon. Geoff couldn't risk firing it at him or Sandra without blowing himself up in the process. Frustrated, the Deathstinger reached up one of its claws to grab the Wolf... Only to have it shot through.

"BANG!"

Vic's Gunsniper stood on a higher ridge, its tail gun smoking. Before the Deathstinger could react, she fired another round through the claw, blasting chunks of servos and structure out the other side. The Deathstinger bucked, roaring in pain. Digging himself in further, Rick managed to keep his balance on the back. Lining up another shot, she put a round through one of its rear claws.

This was the gist of Rick's plan. Sandra bashed her Liger's shield into the Deathstinger's, taking it down. Then Rick jumped on the back and tried to do damage. Vic would snipe from above and try to take out the claws to prevent it from knocking him or Sandra loose. This should theoretically allow them to beat the stupid thing into submission. Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy.

A sniper shot at the tail missed when it jerked to one side at the last possible second. The tail struck Rick's Command Wolf on its damaged side, ripping it free of the Deathstinger and sending it sprawling in a mess of components from both Zoids. The Wolf hit the ground hard and didn't movie, with Rick being stunned or worse. Freed from the Command Wolf, the Stinger turned its tail towards Vic, firing the two secondary 120mm cannons at her Gunsniper. The small Zoid was rocked by the hits, and collapsed below the ridgeline.

"You tool!" Sandra shouted. She didn't care about anything any more. She just wanted to kill him. She wanted to kill him multiple times if possible. Pushing the throttle open, she pushed her Zoid into the Deathstinger. Geoff was apparently of a similar mindset. He grabbed her Liger with the remaining Claw, digging the blades into its side while seizing its forelegs with the mandibles. The Liger roared in pain as the claws dug in, tearing into its structure.

"Just die already!" She shouted as she popped out the to-mounted cannons. Firing at this close range was probably dangerous, but she didn't care. The cannons peppered the Deathstinger's back, ripping chunks out of the back mounted Shot cannon, then tracked down the body. Small explosions and fires broke out as they capitalised on the damage already done by Rick, before striking the head. momentarily regaining her sanity, Sandra opened a link to Geoff's cockpit. Inside, the cockpit was lit only by emergency red lighting, with shattered monitors, sparking panels and destroyed equipment framing Geoff's face. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, and looked to have other injuries. "Give it up, Geoff!" She shouted. "You're injured! Your Zoid is crippled! You can't win!"

The Stinger momentarily released its grip on her side to swat at the top canons, wrenching them free from the body, then digging into the Shield Liger's back. "I said..." Geoff coughed out, sneering into the monitor. "...no witnesses.

Sandra noticed something above her. it was getting brighter, a lot brighter. Looking up, she could see the Deathstinger's tail looming over her, the Charged Particle Cannon glowing ominously. "You're insane! You'll kill us both!" she shouted.

"And when I say there will be no witnesses, there will be no witnesses!" He burst out into a bout of maniacal laughter.

"Damn you!" Sandra shouted. Desperate for a plan, she did the only reasonable thing she could do.

She bit it.

The Shield Liger roared and sank its fangs into the Deathstinger's cockpit. Sparks flew as the electro-charged hardened alloy sabre fangs dug into the Stinger's armour, then pierced it with a wail of tortured metal. The Deathstinger convulsed and shook, then died. The claws and mandibles released their grip, while the tail drooped back, the glow at the tip of the cannon fading. The Deathstinger collapsed to the ground, pulling itself free of the Liger's toothy grip. The Liger shook itself off, then roared.

"Yeah, you've earned it." Sandra muttered to herself. "I'm done here." She looked over to where Rick's Command Wolf was lying on the ground in a pile. "Just please don't be..."

The Command Wolf slowly staggered to its feet, shaking its head. "Owww... that hurt..." Rick muttered as he opened a link to Sandra. "You okay there?" He asked. "Did we win?"

Sandra smiled. "We won." She replied. "And I'm mostly okay. Shield Kitty is another matter." She indicated over her shoulder.

Rick could see the scars and tears along the Shield Liger's body, and whistled. Then something occurred to him. "What about Vic?" He asked.

Sandra was silent for a second. In the euphoria and relief, she'd forgotten about Vic. Rick had been right there in front of her and Vic had been... "I..." She stammered. "I... I don't know."

"Well the town looks pretty bad from up here." The voice came over the com. Opening the link, they could both see Vic's face. The was bruised, but not too badly hurt. "But some of the stuff on the other side looks okay." Her Gunsniper hobbled down from the cliff that it had perched on. It was battered and definitely limping, but looked to be mostly intact.

"We're never coming back here again" Sandra said as she looked down on the town. Huge chunks of it had been obliterated by the Deathstinger's charged particle cannon."It's not like there's much to come back to." Rick replied.

Sandra's Liger looked at the other two Zoids. Both of them were pretty badly torn up, and she suspected that her Shield Liger looked pretty much the same. "So we got our Zoids trashed and for... what?" She asked.

"Well, we killed a Deathstinger, and that doesn't suck." Rick replied. "Besides, there's probably enough left of it for some salvage value."

"He's a corpse, but a valuable corpse." Vic muttered. "Dead money."

Sandra almost laughed. "I forgot that Geoff was a 'Most wanted'. Most places that were after him didn't care if he was dead, alive or suffering from an advanced case of stepped on by an Ultrasaurus. So if we can scrape him out of the cockpit, he's probably worth a few bob to boot."

Vic sniggered, then Rick started as well, followed by bursting out laughing. Then Sandra joined in. "Come on", he said. "We gotta figure how to get that thing down from the side of a mountain."

-----

High above, a lone Z-Ray surveyed the scene. The Deathstinger was lying inert in a smoking heap, and the three Zoids were still walking around. The Gunsniper was even going so far as to poke it with one of its toe claws. The pilot sighed, shrugged and picked up his communicator. "Z-One to base. Geoff's dead. Now what?"


	11. Red Sky

Footrot Flats, The Wastelands

1345 hours

The solitary Lidder cautiously peered out from behind the outcropping it had been using for cover. Its pilot, either desperate to escape or just plain stupid, chose to run. The red and silver, Cat-like Zoid dashed from behind the outcropping, looking to make its escape.

"No you don't!" Sel shouted as she thumbed the trigger on her Darkhorn's Hilbit autocannon. The cannon spat a stream of energy pulses that ripped a gash along the length of the Lidder's body. The Zoid crashed onto its side, smoke pouring from the neck-to-tail wound.

The Darkhorn walked over to the wrecked Zoid, glaring down at it. "That looks to be the last of them." Sel said. "How's everyone else doing?"

"No problems here." Matt replied.

"Yeah, I haven't even worked up a sweat." Bekka added, her coms window shoving into Matt's. "These guys weren't exactly tough."

"This was supposed to be an Imperial advance unit" Sel said. "But they fought like amateurs. These guys weren't warriors, they were garbage truck drivers."

"I think our Intel overestimated their capabilities." Matt replied. "Either that or they mistakenly identified them."

"Well that was a surprise." Alex butted in, his screen adding to the mess. "They've been pretty good so far."

"Well their estimate on the Red Mutant's capabilities was very thorough." Matt said. "Pity it had nothing to do with the real thing."

"Yeah. Anyone would think our intel boys were living in a hole in the ground." Bekka continued, and then laughed.

"You got that right." Alex said. "I heard they've just launched a major op to find their own arses."

"I think that they do a good job, all things considered and we should lay off them." Bob interjected. That pretty much killed it dead. Bob tended to do that to a conversation.

"I'd say that this was probably another desert bandit group." Matt said as his Deadborder stepped over the smoldering carcass of a Molga. "Their Zoids may be stolen or surplus Imperial units. Either that or Intel mistook them for another unit. The Lidder was unusual, you must admit."

"A coward in a fast moving Zoid." Sel muttered. "When are we going to face some true opposition." She sighed. "At least nobody's gotten themselves hurt, killed or their Zoid shot up."

"With this quality of opposition, we haven't had the chance." Bekka replied, her Heldigunner crawling past a wrecked Malder. This group, like most of the others they'd taken on, consisted almost entirely of small Zoids piloted by poor pilots that posed little threat to a Heldigunner, let alone a Deadborder or Darkhorn.

"Yeah, but we've been cutting down on wandering desert loonies." Alex finished. He'd been assigned as the long-range support gunner, and had been racking up a considerable amount of kills simply from artillery fire. Most of their opponents lacked the equipment, training or coordination to fire back.

"Okay everybody, quieten down." Sel said over the channel. "Usual detail; round up the surviving pilots and see what they know about anything. I'll call for our transport."

-----

High above, a lone Z-Ray circled the battlefield, watching. He'd been searching the wastelands for days, and had finally found his prey. He'd been sent after a group of five "dark" Zoids, a Darkhorn, a Deadborder and three Heldigunners, and the ones below definitely fit the bill.

His Zoid's radar warned him of a large object approaching from the air. Pulling his Z-Ray into a steep climb, he soared higher still, lurking above the clouds. Sure enough, a massive grey shape emerged from under one of the clouds. A dull grey Whale King, matching the description he was given. The Whale King stopped over the battlefield, then slowly descended. It had to be theirs.

He picked up his communicator. "Z-Five to base." He began, a hint of smugness creeping into his voice. "I've found our targets."

-----

In the communications centre of the Red Wings' subterranean base, Grant sat by one of the communications sets. He'd been listening intently to Z-One's running commentary of the efforts of the various hitmen he'd hired, and had been disappointed to say the least. Since Geoff's demise a few days ago (something Grant had refused to believe until he'd been shown live footage), he'd been reduced to listening to Z-One's bitching about his lack of sleep and toilet breaks.

The other Z-Rays that he'd sent out to find the Dark Zoids that had attacked him had failed to locate them. A couple had reported recently vacated battlefields which may have been them, and there was a false sighting of a lone Heldigunner, but that was it.

Reven walked into the room, a mug of hot coffee in her hand. "You're still here?" She asked him. "What are you doing anyway?" Grant held up a single hand. "And what exactly are you doing with all my Z-Rays? You've got them scattered all over the Wastelands chasing after... well I have no idea what and-"

Grant cut her off. "I need them for something important." Grant replied, speaking haltingly through clenched teeth.

"What's so important that you have them scattered to the four winds chasing their own arses?" She asked.

He jumped up, all but leaping on her. "Vengeance is always important!" He shouted.

Reven was about to say something, when the communicator crackled to life. "Z-Five to base." the voice said, sounding more then a bit smug. "I've found our targets."

Grant leapt over to the communicator. "Where?!" he shouted. "Where are they?"

"Footrot Flats, grid reference AJ-2P." He replied. "They're with their Whale King now. Looks like they just screwed over some bunch of desert thugs and are getting out of there."

"Excellent!" Grant shouted. "Here are your orders, Z-Five. You are to monitor them as closely as possible without being sighted. Follow their Whale King, wherever it may go. Don't attack it, don't let it see you, but wait for my orders."

"Yes sir!" Z-Five replied.

"Oh, and consider yourself rewarded." Grant replied. "After all this is done, there's a big fat juicy bonus waiting for you."

"Yes sir!" He replied again, a greedy, hungry tone in his voice.

Grant put down the communicator and turned to Reven. "Get all your men together. Recall everyone back to the base save for him. We're going hunting."

-----

Bob climbed out of his Heldigunner's cockpit, noting the dirt on its underbelly and feet. Otherwise, his Zoid was unharmed. Feeling pleased with himself, he turned to the locker room. Then his face dropped. Alex and Bekka were bounding towards him, goofy looks on their faces.

"Bob got a kill, Bob got a kill!" Bekka cheered as she danced around him.

"Got on you, man." Alex said, and slapped him on the back.

"You both know that I have gotten plenty of kills before this." He replied. While it was true, he had also gotten the least amount of kills of anyone on the team so far. True, Alex had the long-range cannon to explain some of his success, but playing second fiddle to Bekka was becoming humiliating.

"Yeah, but we're happy for you for getting one more!" Bekka said, cheerily.

"Speaking of kills... " Alex said. "Did you see the way that Sel ploughed into that Iguan! I mean... crunch! It was like it wasn't there!"

"That was cool." Bekka replied. "But not as cook as Bob's kill." She laughed, then abruptly stopped.

Matt and Sel walked over to the three of them. All three stopped and saluted. "At ease." Sel replied. "Debrief is in thirty. I suggest you all clean up before that."

"Yes sir!" They all replied, then ran off to the locker rooms.

Sel waited a few seconds, then laughed. "That was good." She said. "The looks on their faces as they stopped carrying on and realised we were there. Priceless!"

Matt smiled. "That's the first time I've heard you laugh since this mission began. It's good."

Sel had to stop and blink. "It is?" She honestly hadn't thought about it. "I guess it is. I must have been too busy with all that leadership stuff."

"It just shows that you're still a human being." Matt replied. "Which is better then some people can claim."

"Yeah still..." She trailed off. "It'd be nice to be young like them, with no responsibilities."

"What do you mean?" Matt replied. "You're only a couple of years older then them."

"You know what I mean." She said, and punched him in the arm. "We'd better get cleaned up. Doesn't set a good example if we're late to the briefing."

-----

Z-One had been following the three Zoids for a few days now. Even though he'd long since run out of assassins top send after them, he was still under orders to watch them. Right now they were trudging across a particularly barren stretch of dried earth, dragging the dismembered carcass of the Death Stinger behind them. He had to hand it to them. It took balls to take on a Death Stinger in anything short of a Mad Thunder or Deathsaurer. But dragging it around with you? That was good. It was the ultimate "do not mess with me" sign. "Yeah, see this guy? He messed with us. What are you going to do that he couldn't?"

In a way, he'd become attached to the three of them. It was kind of interesting to watch what they'd do to survive whatever was thrown at them. Since he didn't know anything about them save for their Zoids, he'd ended up naming them himself. The Shield Liger, which seemed to be the leader of the three, was now called Alan. So far he'd seen it rely on its claws and teeth more then its guns, and spend a lot of its time in suicidal head-on charges supporting the Wolf. The Wolf, on the other hand, seemed to be content to follow it around and finish off most opponents with its guns. He called it Kyle. The Gunsniper he called Hal. It seemed to be the loner of the three, spending most of its time at the outside of the group. In combat, the pilot would hang back and snipe if possible, and use their guns at even point blank range. It was almost enough to make him wonder what they were really like. He suspected that one of them was a woman and possibly hot.

His communicator snapped him back to real life. "Z-One, are you there?" It was Reven's voice.

"Yes commander." He replied. "I'm still following the three Zoids as per orders."

"Return to base, Z-One." Reven replied. "New orders."

"Yes commander!" He said, excitedly. As fun as watching these three was, what he really, really wanted was a stretch, a shave and a shower. He'd been in this dammed Z-Ray so long, he'd begun to forget what the outside world looked like. The Z-Ray banked away from the Zoids, speeding off back to its base.

"I wonder if I'll see them again," he thought.

-----

Grant had formed the Red Wings for a purpose. It was a part of his great plan. His army of Red mutants had been but the first stage in it. He'd hoped to build them up, while transferring all the best pilots to a separate force. Those pilots would from a well-trained strike force that would support his army. With such a force, nobody in the Wastelands could stand up to him. Then they would have to fear him!

Of course, things hadn't quite gone right. He'd ended up loosing his army before he could use them. Now the Red Wings were his only force, and they served a new purpose. They were for Vengeance.

He strode angrily through the Red Wings' base towards their main hanger. Reven was running alongside him, trying to keep up with him while shouting at him. "What in the name of Tomy do you think you're doing?!" she shouted at him.

"I am using the Red Wings for the purpose that I created them for." He replied. "I am using them to write a great wrong that was done to me."

Reven muttered darkly as she strode alongside him. "And what are you going to do with my unit?"

"Your unit?!" He shouted. "I created them! I gave you command of them! I got you where you are today! I suggest you remember that!" He stormed past her.

Reven stood there blinking for a moment, then ran after him. "Fine. Its your unit. Be like that." She said. "But I at least want to know what you're doing with them before I lead them into it."

He turned around, looking straight into her angry green eyes. 'You will not be leading them. I will lead them myself." He turned around and walked off.

"You will lead them?" She muttered. "How's he going to do that from the ground?

-----

Sel walked into her quarters, throwing her jacket on the back of a seat as she went. One of the advantages of the Dark Star's small crew was that each person got a lot more room to move then they would have in the normally cramped living conditions. Sel, as the commander of the forces onboard, had commandeered one of the larger rooms as her combination office and quarters. Aside from giving her the room to attend to the various administrative matters that came from running the unit, it also gave her a relatively private sanctum where she could get away from the rest of her unit when she wanted to.

Right now she had to write up the report of today's battle. Right now what she really wanted to do was sleep for a while, then spend some "off duty" time with her men. She liked those moments; she got to be a normal person to them, rather then their leader.

A beeping noise came from the combination computer/communicator on the desktop. Sighing, Sel walked over to it and activated the communicator. Alice, one of the ship's communications officers appeared on the screen. "Sorry to interrupt you, captain." She began. "But I have a priority coded transmission from command."

Sel shook her head. This was probably going to be more "intel" that proved to be completely inaccurate. Still, it was unusual for them to call her. Intelligence briefings were normally delivered at regular times. This was anything but. "Put it through, Alice."

"Yes, captain." She said. Her face vanished off the screen, to be replaced with the logo of a five-pointed black star, and a "Sound only" message.

Sel took her seat. "Go ahead."

"We have a new assignment for you, captain Magyari." The electronically-altered male voice on the other end of the line began. "Intelligence has identified your next targets. This is a priority assignment, Captain."

"With all due respect, sir." Sel began. "Intelligence's briefings have been far from accurate thus far. If you examine my reports, you'll find substantial gaps between what Intel claimed and what we actually found."

Ignoring Sel, the voice continued. "Intel has identified what we believe is Major Kandrack's unit." It paused to let this sink in. "It is also believed that he has a copy of the Quentin Journal. You understand how important this is, Captain."

Sel let this sink in for a moment before replying. "Yes sir." She said.

"We are trying to pin down the exact location of the unit. For the moment, we believe they are in the area of Grid Reference P5M. When we do, your orders are to locate and terminate with extreme prejudice." It paused again. "Understand that it is vital for our future that you accomplish this."

"Yes sir." She said again.

"We will contact you when we have further data." The voice said. "In the meantime, you are not to inform anyone of this." The screen shut down.

Sel sat back in her chair. This was an unexpected development, to say the least. And, if it did turn out to be true, it could be her most important assignment yet.

-----

Z-One clambered out of his cockpit, leaping down to the floor of the Subterranean hanger. Reven was already there, waiting for him. "You look like hell." She as soon as he landed.

"Yeah, well..." He muttered. "Being stranded in a Zoid cockpit for several days without a break will do that to you."

Reven backed off from him a bit. "So, uh, what were you doing out there anyway?" She asked.

"Grant had me monitoring some group of Zoids in the desert." He replied. "He'd lined up a whole bunch of hitmen to take them out and I was reporting on the status of each attempt."

"And did they work?" Reven asked.

"Well, no." He replied. "They left a trail of destruction behind them, which involved flattening several gangs, reducing a small town to rubble and killing a Death Stinger." He shrugged. "What I want to know is what's going on here? Why'd I get called back to base?"

"Grant's recalled everyone save for Z-Five." Reven replied. "He's got some bee in his bonnet about 'vengeance' or something. He's pulled rank on me, which means I can't really do nothing about it."

"So in other words..." Z-One trailed off as he thought about it. "He's just marched in and taken over the unit, and you have no idea why."

"Pretty much." Reven finished.

Before Z-One could say anything, Grant marched up to her. "I want your Zoid." He said, not shouting for a change.

"My Zoid?" she asked.

"You heard me!" He shouted. "Your whatistsname. Sala ptera thing."

"Krark?" Z-One offered.

"You want my Krark?" Reven asked. The Krark was her pride and joy. By far the biggest and most powerful Zoid in the unit, it was her personal machine. Nobody else in the unit was allowed to touch it. She guarded it jealously, and made sure it got top priority for repairs and maintenance. Despite its advanced age, it was as good as the day it had been born. Or hatched. Or built. Or wherever wild Zoids came from.

"Yes, I want your Krark." He snarled back. "How am I going to lead my men from the ground?"

"You can't have the Krark!" She yelled back. "It's my Zoid, not yours! And they're my men, I lead them-"

"Don't you dare tell me what to do!" Grant shouted back, looming over her. Reven shrugged back away from him. "I am, taking your Krark and I am leading my men into battle from it! Is that understood?"

"Yes sir." She squeaked back in a tiny voice.

"Good. Have it ready to go immediately." He said, then walked off.

The better part of a minute passed before either of them spoke. "So, uh, what are you going to do now?" Z-One asked.

"I might as well let him have it now." She said. "I can't do anything to him here, too many of these people would follow him rather then me anyway." She looked around. "Now I need a Zoid."

"You don't want mine." Z-One replied. "I've been sitting in it for days now." He looked around. "As far as I recall, wee have nothing to spare save for..." he trailed off, then looked at her.

"Fine." Reven said. She was in a mood to wreak bloody vengeance on the first passing sap that she came across. There. There was a likely looking victim. Pedro, one of the pilots in her unit. He was a skinny man with dark skin and curly brown hair. "You there!" She shouted. "Pedro! I want a word with you!"

He jumped and turned around. "Yes, miss Reven?" He asked, nervously.

"I'm taking your Zark. I need it." She snapped.

"But miss Reven!" He exclaimed. "What will Pedro pilot?"

Reven thought for a second. "Fine then, Pedro. You can pilot Larry."

Pedro collapsed to his knees, shouting into the air. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Z-One turned to Reven. "You know, that was a really, really cruel thing you just did to him, Boss."

"Right now, Z-One, I don't care." Reven replied. "Right now, I'm in a mood to make someone or something suffer."

-----

The Dark Star's bridge wasn't a place that she usually visited. While she was the commander of the ships' Zoid compliment, and the over all commander of the mission, the captain's authority usually superseded hers when it came to matters of running the ship. If she did go there, it was usually to gather data on the terrain around an expected landing zone or combat area, or for some other occasion. Today, she was after information.

Even during relatively idle moments between operations, the bridge was still a busy place. Crewmembers were assigned to various stations across the screen, controlling the ship's navigation, monitoring sensors, manning weapons stations and other vital activities. Sel walked past the various stations towards the captain's chair.

Captain Konstantinov was a tall, solid man. In his early fifties, he sported a thick grey beard and hair as well as deep brown eyes. He knew that Sel was his equal in rank and, for the moment, his superior, however he often resented her authority over him. Part of it was because of the conflict between her being a ground-based soldier and him being a ship's captain, and part was due to her relatively young age. "Sorry to interrupt you, captain." She said as she walked up next to the command chair. "I needed to take a look at something in Navigation."

He turned to her. "Well, I'm not doing anything at present." He indicated to the various consoles. "We're on a down period between assignments and there's no immediate danger to the ship, so I'll join you." Getting up, he walked with her to the navigation section at the back of the bridge. The centre of the room was dominated by a display table, that was normally used to display various maps. Sel stood to one side, while he took the control console. "So what are we looking for?"

"Grid reference P5M." Sel replied. The table activated, showing a wide-area map of the Wastelands portion of the Shelflands continent. Zooming in, it displayed a square area of wasteland.

"There it is" the captain said. "Not much to look at, as you can see."

The map area covered the tail end of the Bookend mountain range, on the far side from where they were now. Apart from desert and mountains, the only thing to note were a pair of settlements. One was rather small while the other was somewhat larger, probably a decent-sized town. "What have we got there?" She asked.

"Not much." The captain replied. He hit a few buttons, illuminating the map with text. "As you can see, the larger town is a mining community. About a thousand or so people attached to a large mine. The second town looks to be little more then a cluster of huts around a water source."

Sel examined the map. "And is there anything important in there? Anything of interest?"

Konstantinov rubbed his chin. "I wouldn't be able to say for certain, but I can't see anything there beyond the mine. Even then, they only extract raw ore there."

"Interesting" she muttered. "So in all, not much there?"

"Mind if I ask why you're interested in this particular area?" He asked.

"Nothing..." She replied. "I can't really say."

"Ah." He said, turning away from her.

Sel looked at the map. They had to be there, she thought. She'd been given this opportunity. She had to do it. She couldn't begin to think how important it was. She was about to speak, when Alice, one of the techs, interrupted. "Captain, I think we're being followed."

The two of them walked over to her station. A radar screen showed that there was a single blip following the Whale King, staying at the extreme edge of its detection range. "What have you got there, McNeil?" the captain asked.

"Not sure, sir." She replied. "It's a small flyer Zoid, possibly a Sinker or Pteras." She pointed to the blip. "It's directly astern of us, matching our speed, heading and altitude."

"It's definitely following us then." Konstantinov said. "Magyari, you had better get your men ready. We could be seeing some action."

-----

The Red Wings inventory included four types of Zoid. Aside from Reven's Krark (The only Krark in the unit's inventory), it had a wing of Zarks, a wing of Z-Rays and a small number of Terrareds. For the most part, the Terrareds weren't used, and for good reason.

Being a wild relative of the Gildoler, one of the earliest Zoids, its abilities were far from stellar. Slow, clumsy in flight, virtually unarmoured and very lightly armed, they had nothing going for them in combat. That didn't seem to discourage Terrareds from fighting. In fact, as Zoids went, Terrareds were some of the relentlessly enthusiastic fighters there were. Terrareds would happily pick fights with Zoids many times their own size, and were more then willing to ram into their opponents when all else had failed (Which it usually did).

Larry was considered to be aggressive, overenthusiastic and suicidal even by Terrared standards. When he was captured, he'd tried to take down Reven's Krark. Then, he'd tried to headbut his way out of the containment net, and then tried to bash his way out of the hanger. The few times they'd tried to use him in combat, he'd tried to wipe himself out on all manner of things. A Gustav. A crippled Godos. An imperial Iron Kong. A rock.

The only good thing to say about Larry was that as a kamikaze, he wasn't very good at it. He'd clipped the Gustav's top radar mast and bounced off. The Godos had tripped over when it's leg had given out and Larry had flown past it. The Kong had used its thrusters to leap away, then bat him aside. And he missed the rock.

Pedro looked up at the Terrared before him. At the moment, it was just standing there, at rest. However, he could see the numerous pits and dents in its structure, especially around the cockpit.

"What has Pedro done to deserve this?" He asked himself. "Why miss Reven, Why?"

"Oh stop blubbering and get over here." Reven snapped. Pedro picked himself up off the ground and joined the line-up of pilots. Despite her position, Reven was on the far end of the squad, with Pedro and Z-One. Grant was pacing up and down in front of the squad.

"Now that you're all here..." He began, eyeing Reven and Pedro. "I formed this unit for a reason. That reason was for freedom." He paced a little more. "I came here, into the wastelands to be free from the might and oppression of those in power, as I have no doubt many of you did." This seemed to strike a chord with the pilots. Unlike most desert scum, the Red Wings pilots, Reven included, were mainly from the UZS or the Empire. Many of them had been members of various militaries at some point. "Now, today is the first day that we stop fleeing and stop hiding and start fighting back!"

There was a shout of approval form the assembled pilots. Grant waited for them to subside before continuing. "Today, we will strike the first blow for freedom from the oppressors!" They cheered again. Reven had to admit that she was impressed by the way he was controlling them. Why hadn't she ever had this much luck. "After today, they will know who we are, and they will fear us!" They cheered again

Grant waited again. "To your Zoids! Strike at the enemy and show him our true power!" The pilots all ran to their various machines, eagerly boarding. Only three remained behind, Reven, Z-One and Pedro.

"Commander?" Z-One asked.

"I suppose we had better go" Reven replied. "If only to see what this maniac is planning and if we can salvage the situation." She began to walk to her newly acquired Zark, when she spied Pedro standing there, staring blankly into space. "What's up with you Pedro?"

"Pedro is filled with fear, Miss Reven." He replied. "Pedro does not want to die."

Reven tapped her foot angrily on the floor. "Pedro, if you go out there, you may die. But if you stay here, someone, possibly me, possibly Grant, will kill you. Make your decision."

"But Miss Reven, Pedro is afraid."

"GOD DAMN IT, JUST DO IT!" Reven shouted. "If you don't go out there now, I will give you something to be afraid of."

Pedro ran to his Zoid. "That was cruel of you, Reven." Z-One said.

"Right now, I don't care."

-----

The Red Wings base was concealed in a large, natural cavern underneath a mesa. The hanger itself was built at the end of the cavern, near the cave mouth, with a pair of heavy metal doors sealing it off from the outside. Today, an outside observer would have been treated to a spectacular sight as the massive red form of a Krark rose from under the ground. Behind it came a group of six Zarks, then a group of five Z-Rays. Finally, trailing them, was a trio of Terrareds. The Zoids climbed high, then leveled out.

Sitting in the Krark's cockpit, Grant opened a channel to the other pilots. "We are the hunters. Our prey for today is a Whale King. Let the hunt commence."

-----


	12. Kamikazie Attack Ducks

Whale King Dark Star

1700 hours

The Dark Star's rec room was she ship's unofficial hub during the off hours. Off duty members of its skeleton crew tended to congregate here, as the ship's spare facilities offered few other options. Right now, four of the Zoid pilots were engaged in a game of pool, a game that two of them were loosing badly.

Bob lined up a shot on the cueball. Slowly drawing back, he hit the cueball. The white ball span across the table, hitting one ball then bouncing and hitting another. Bekka watched nervously as the two balls bounced around the table, before both sinking into the pockets. Bob smiled as they both dropped. "You may mock my piloting skills," he began, a hint of smugness in his voice. "But when it comes to the pool table, I'm pretty damned good."

"Damn!" Bekka shouted. "Damn, damn, damn, damn!" She was all but jumping up and down on the spot.

"Whoah, you okay there?" Alex asked.

"Yeah... sure." Bekka said. "It's just... beaten by Bob..." She looked decidedly sulky about it.

"Okay, pay time." Matt said, putting his cue down. "We beat you fair and square."

"Damn right you did." Alex muttered, sipping his beer. "I never knew Bob was such a pool shark."

Bob sneered. "And you two have known me how long?"

Before anyone could say anything, Matt interjected. "Okay, people, simmer down. First part of payment to the winners is confessional." He pointed at Bekka. "So my question to you is, what's with the ski goggles?" Everyone looked at her. For the last few days Bekka had been wearing a pair of ski goggles on her head whenever she wasn't in her Zoid. Nobody had asked before now.

"Those?" She asked. "Well, remember that sniper girl who was with those guys we met? I liked her look with the goggles on, so I thought it'd look cool on me.

"It don't work, trust me." Alex said. "Very not you. Tattoos, sleeveless top, red hair yes, but not goggles."

"Why didn't you tell me?" She replied, angrily.

There was a round of casual indifference. "'cause you didn't ask us." Alex finally said. "Not one single 'so what do you think' or anything.

"Oh, like you with that ponytail you had when you were fifteen?" She replied as she took them off.

"Yes, like that." Alex muttered.

Before anyone could say anything else, Sel entered. "'bout time you got here." Bekka began, shouldering her cue and glad for the focus of attention to shift. "We were al waiting for you."

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Sel replied. "Unfortunately, we have a situation on our hands." Everyone turned to her. "The ships sensors have detected a lone bogey, deliberately tailing us. Now while it is possible that it is just a single Zoid following us for fun, we can't discount that it may be a scout, or it may be monitoring us for some reason." She looked around at them. "It is also possible that it is trying to locate our base of operations." Everyone knew what she meant by that.

"What are your orders, Captain?" Matt asked, the jovial front he'd shown just a few minutes ago gone.

"I want you all to suit up and be ready for action immediately." She said. "We don't know what's going on, but I don't intend to be caught by surprise."

-----

The Red Wings group formed up behind Grant's Krark, high above the desert floor. The sun was beginning to lower towards the horizon but the skies were still clear and there was plenty of light remaining. Ahead of them was Z-Five's lone Z-Ray and, presumably, the Whale King.

Grant opened a secure link to Z-Five. "This is Grant to Z-Five. Are you there?"

There was a pause. "Z-Five here. I read you." Another pause. "Is commander Reven th-"

"I am in command of this operation, Z-Five." Grant replied. "What is the status of the target?"

"Dead ahead, maintaining its course, speed and altitude." He said. "At this stage, it appears that they're unaware of my presence."

"Excellent" Grant replied. "Maintain your speed, heading and altitude. We will be with you soon."

There was a pause. "Um, commander," Z-Five began. "Shouldn't captain Reven be leading this operation?"

"I am leading this operation." Grant replied. "Don't worry about it. Oh, and Z-Five?"

"Yes sir?" He asked, nervously.

"There's a substantial bonus waiting for you when we complete this operation." Grant finished.

"Thank you, sir!" He replied. It was clear from his voice that any worries he may have had were gone.

-----

Sel walked out of the locker room, wearing her black pilot's suit, her neurohelmet under her right arm. As much as she hated having to sit around in the suit, she also understood that they may need to disembark the ship at a moment's notice, and it was far better to be prepared. She was about to join the rest of the squad in the ready room, when her wrist communicator bleeped. She pressed connection button on the communicator and spoke into it. "Magyari here. What's happening?"

"Ship's sensors have detected a dozen blips astern of us." Alice replied. "No, make that sixteen."

"What types?" Sel asked.

"Unsure." Alice said. "They appear to be similar of size to the first blip, but there's one very large one amongst them. Far bigger then any of the others. Could be a Salamander or..." she trailed off.

"Understood." Sel said. "What's the captain doing?"

"He's not taking any immediately hostile actions." Alice said. "But he's-" she halted. "Hold on. They've just opened fire!"

-----

"All units, open fire!" Grant's order went out over the squad. From her position in the lead Zark, Reven watched as the other Zoids in the squad opened fire with their missiles. A mass of white trails filled the air as the missiles leapt form the wings and bodies of the various Zoids and sped towards their targets.

A standard firing procedure that Reven had established for her squad was for them to fire only half their missiles in a first "massed volley." This meant they had reserve missiles to use individually. A massive clump of missiles was both easier and harder for the target to deal with then individuals. Easier because you could just target the nearest "clump" of missiles and hope for the best. Harder because the odds were that some missiles would get through no matter how many you thought you got.

Looking around, she noted that a good number of the Zoids had fired all their missiles in the first volley. Stupid... she thought. So much for standard firing procedure. Grant had managed to flush it all in the one go.

Killing this Whale King had better be worth it, she thought.

-----

The Dark Star, like all Whale Kings was equipped with an array of close-in anti-Zoid weapons in addition to its heavy main cannons. While designed to shoot down attacking Zoids, these guns were also useful against missiles. The various weapons opened fire, spraying the sky astern of the ship with fire. Although far from accurate, it was about the only guaranteed way to hit something.

One of the Dark Star's gunners got lucky. A few rounds hit one of the Krark's long-range missiles. The missile exploded in the middle of the flight, the explosion detonating numerous other missiles around it. it was a small victory for the Dark Star's crew; numerous missiles made it thorough, impacting into the ships hull.

-----

Reven watched the spectacular fireball of the missiles detonation in mid-air from her cockpit. Even with the subsequent hits against the ships' hull, she was unimpressed. Their firing pattern was so sloppy, she thought. Did all the training I gave them go to waste?

"We've wounded them!" Grant shouted over the communicator. True enough, the Whale King was somewhat worse for wear and trailing smoke. "All units, move in for the kill! Whoever takes that thing down will be a rich man!"

There was a cheer across the channel as the various Zoids moved in for the kill. "That's what happened to them" she muttered. Grant had found what truly motivated them; their greed.

Around her, the various Zoids accelerated and streaked towards the Whale King, closing in fro the kill. "Uh, mam?" Z-One's voice came over the communicator. "What should we do?"

"Might as well join in." She replied. "At the very least, I want a shot at that reward."

-----

The five pilots were thrown around their ready room as the Dark Star was rocked by the barrage of hits. Bob ended up face down on the floor, much to his embarrassment. Bekka ended up on top of Alex, the pair of them remaining like that before either moved.

Sel hit her communicator. "Magyari to bridge. What the hell is going on out there?"

"We've been hit by a volley of missiles." Alice replied. "We have damage to the outer hull, some secondary systems, some weapons and one of the engines is loosing power."

"What's the status of our opponents?" She shouted.

"They're closing in on us, probably going to guns range." Alice replied. "They may have expended all their missiles already."

Poorly trained or ill-disciplined pilots, Sel thought. This may not be too bad. "Do we know how many and what types?"

"It's hard to tell exactly, but it looks like one Salamander, about five Pteras, five Sinkers and a trio of what we think are Glidolers." Alice stated, reading off her displays.

"Glidolers?" Sel thought ant trailed off. Salamander, Pteras, Sinker, Glidoler... there was something wrong here... "Quick, what colours are the Pteras and Salamander?" She asked.

"We can't tell, but they look to be red." Alice said. "Why do you ask?"

"Never mind!" Sel shouted. "Just target the Glidolers first! Make sure you destroy them before anything else! They're by far the most dangerous!"

"What?" Alice asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, dammit, Alice. Just destroy them!"

-----

On the bridge, Alice put down her communicator for a second. Destroy the Glidolers first? More dangerous then a Salamander? That seemed just... wrong to her. Still, if Sel said so, and she was the expert here. She opened a link to the captain. "Captain Konstantinov?" She began. "McNeil here. I've just informed Captain Magyari of our situation. She has advised us that the Glidolers should be our priority targets."

Konstantinov said nothing for a moment then replied. "Thank you for that, McNeil. Inform Captain Magyari-" he emphasised her rank. "That I know how to run my ship. I appreciate her advice, but I will handle this situation myself."

"Yes sir." She replied. Alice figured what that meant. Konstantinov didn't like Sel giving him orders, so in a situation that he was supposed to be dealing with, her advice wasn't appreciated.

Besides, it didn't really make sense. Target the Glidolers? They were probably the least threatening of all the Zoids out there.

-----

The mass of Zoids fell upon the Whale King, firing their guns at the massive ship. Swarming around it, they attacked form every angle, trying not to concentrate themselves into large groups and present easy targets for the ship's gunners. Fire from the Whale King's AA fire filled the air, the attackers doing their best to avoid it.

Reven's Zark weaved through the enemy fire as it dived towards the ship. Squeezing the trigger, she fired a burst from the nose mounted cannon at the ship. The fire raked along the side of its hull, to little noticeable effect. Pulling back on the control stick, she pulled away before she hit the ships hull.

A Z-Ray swung up form the ship alongside her, before settling off her wing. "That you?" Z-One's voice came through the comm link.

"Yep." She replied. "How are you doing there?"

"Can't really say." He said. "I've fired half my ordinance and raked the ship with shots and I can't honestly say I've achieved anything." He sighed. "I liked it better when I was chasing people across the desert."

"Yeah.." Reven said. "I wonder how everyone else is getting along?"

"Worried about Mr Pedro?"

"Pedro?" She snorted derisively. "Fat chance. Actually, I hope Z-Five is okay."

"Any reason?" Z-Five had been little more then 'Fifth guy in the squad' to here. Even as far as Z-One was concerned, he'd been pretty anonymous.

"Yeah." She replied. "So I can strangle him myself for getting us into this."

-----

Despite Reven's lack of concern for his health, Pedro was doing remarkably well.

Unlike the Pteras and Sinker (and their derivatives, the Zark and Z-Ray), the Glidoler (and thus the Terrared) is not equipped with any missile weapons. In fact, its armament consists of a single light-caliber vulcan gun. Thus the Red Wing's three Terrareds were forced to close in to near point-blank range in order to attack the Whale King, and rely on their speed and manoeuvrability to survive. The problem is that the Glidoler, by comparison is very slow and clumsy in flight. (In fact, the Glidoler in flight had often been compared to a hurled brick). Combined with their lack of armour, this normally made their chances of survival minimal at best.

Fortunately for Pedro and the other two Terrared pilots, the Dark Star's gunners hadn't been passed Sel's orders and were thus all but ignoring them, only taking shots at them when no other targets presented themselves or when they were just shooting the first thing to come along.

Unfortunately for Pedro, Larry seemed to be enjoying the fight way too much. He had been enthusiastically diving on the ship, fringe and then pulling out at the last possible second. He was focused on the ship to the near total exclusion of all else; even the other Red Wings. Several times Pedro had steered Larry away from a near collision with other flying Zoids. He'd long since realised that he wasn't in control here. He was just along for the ride. Pedro had given up trying to control Larry. All he could do now was try to stop the Zoid from getting them both killed. All the time he could feel, through the neural link, Larry's growing excitement at the thought of the battle, or at least wiping himself out in a glorious fireball.

Larry swooped down again, charging at the ship from head on. Pedro screamed in terror as the urge ship filled the forward viewscreen. Larry didn't care. Fringe his gun like mad, he swerved at the last minute, flying parallel to the hull, firing at whatever he came across before pulling up and away. Pedro hurriedly grabbed the controls to steer him away form a Z-Ray and a Zark that had just pulled out of another attack run.

"Pedro is glad that is over" he thought to himself. Just then, Larry looped then flew back at the ship at high speed. "Noooo!" Pedro shouted as the Zoid passed through a hail of fire then opened up on the ship again. He yanked the controls to the right at the last second, forcing the Terrared to swerve away from the hull before it hit. Pedro sighed with relief before he saw a pair of Zoids form up on Larry's wings. They were the other two Terrareds from the squad.

A comms window opened in the Terrared's cockpit. The face that appeared was a broad, angry looking one with a thick beared and numerous scars. Pedro recognised him as Mad Hamish, one of the meanest, nastiest and probably most insane people in the whole unit. He was grinning a broad grin that showed lots of broken teeth. "Hey Pedro!" He shouted. "Glad to see you've joined us! Having a good time?"

"Pedro does not want to die!" Pedro replied.

"That's the spirit!" Hamish shouted. "Just keep thinking that and you're fine! Let the Zoid do all the work for you!"

"But Mr Larry is trying to Kill Pedro!"

"Ah, that's just a Terrared's way!" he laughed. "Ain't that right, Lefty?"

Another vid window opened with the pilot from the second Terrared. He was just as scarred as Hamish, as well as sporting a patch over one eye and a distinctive cybernetic left arm. "Ayup. That's right. Terrared does all the work for ya. All you gotta do is tell it where ta go."

Pedro looked at Lefty, and then at Mad Hamish. He looked at their scars, and their missing limbs and their broken teeth. And then he looked at the view through the Terrared's front viewer. The Whale King was rushing towards him at speed. Grabbing the controls again, Pedro pulled the Terrared back from the dive at the last second before hitting.

"That's the spirit, boy!" Lefty shouted. "Time for another round." The two other Terrareds pulled away, Larry following them.

The three of them looped around, then swooped down on the Whale King again from direct head on. Pulling away at the last second, the three of them swooped along the length of the ship firing their cannons wildly. All around them the sky was filled with fire from the Whale King's guns. As they approached the far end of the ship, a bolt tore though Lefty's Terrared. The small Zoid continued for a moment, trailing smoke, then exploded. Larry and Mad Hamish continued along their mad flight, seemingly ignoring Lefty's demise. Pedro remained clutching to the control stick, pleading for his life.

The two Zoids pulled away, shots still trailing after them. One of them struck Mad Hamish's Zoid in the back, ripping apart a good part of the structure. The zoid wobbled and then began to fall towards Larry. Before it could hit, however, a second bolt struck it and it exploded into flames, showering Pedro's zoid with debris.

Shaken but unharmed, Pedro checked the various consoles and displays. Numerous systems were showing as damaged or disabled, including the small cannon that was its only weapon. "Pedro has no weapons...:" he said to himself. "Pedro must escape!" He pulled on the stick to bank away from the Whale king and retreat. He'd have to apologise to Grant and miss Reven later.

Nothing happened.

The Terrared flew straight on for a moment longer, and then looped around, heading back towards the ship. The Whale King's side loomed up large in the forward viewscreen as the Terrared approached it at high speed. Pedro pulled back on the stick, but there was no response. Larry was set on wiping himself out in one glorious moment.

"Please r Larry, Pedro does not want to die!" He wailed as the ship got closer and closer. Fire form the ship sailed past the Terrared, missing by the narrowest margins possible. Why couldn't they hit? thought Pedro. That way Larry might veer off course or be discouraged or...

The ship filled the viewscreen. "Oh no!" Pedro shouted. "Very, very Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

-----

"Did you hear something?" Reven asked.

"Uh, no." Z-One replied.

Below them the Whale King was billowing smoke from a huge hole in its right side. Something big had struck it, apparently crippling it. The other Red Wings had noted this, and were moving in for the kill.

"Right. Who cares what it was." Reven said. "Let's just finish that thing off and get our bounty."

-----

Onboard the Dark Star was chaos. The main lights had gone out, leaving the ship with only the emergency red lighting. Sirens blared throughout the ship while sprinklers had come on. Technicians, fire-fighters and medics rushed through the corridors, apparently in all directions.

"What the hell just happened?" Sel shouted into her communicator.

"We've been struck amidships by a large, fast moving projectile." Alice shouted back. "it doesn't appear to have exploded, but its torn straight through the hull and done severe damage to most systems."

"What's our status?" Sel shouted. The sprinklers suddenly came on in the ready room, drenching her and the rest of the squad. "Aaagh! Alice, what's happening up there?"

"It looks pretty bad." She replied. "We've got severe damage to the main power core. Engines are operating on bare minimum power. We've got enough to stay aloft and move along at a crawl, but that's about it. Weapons are almost entirely down. We have a few guns, but its all we can manage."

"And we're still surrounded, right?"

There was a pause. "Yeah. We've knocked down a few of them, but the majority are still out there, including the Salamander. With what weaponry we have available, we probably can't get them all before..." She trailed off. Sel knew what she was going to say.

She looked around at her men. They were soaked by the sprinklers, but otherwise unharmed. "Did you get all that?" She asked. They nodded. "In essence, we're in trouble. If we try to stay in the air, we'll probably get shot down. If we try to put down the ship for us to disembark, it'll get picked apart." She rubbed the corners of her eyes.

"Your orders, captain?" Matt asked.

"I have an idea." She began. "It's a very foolhardy and risky one, but it may yet work." She looked at them. "Bob, Bekka, I need your help for this. This is an incredibly high-risk assignment, however. If you don't want to do it, I'll understand."

"Thank you for that captain." Bob replied. "I will gladly volunteer for this assignment."

Sel nodded. "And you, Bekka?"

"Let me at 'em." She replied with a grin.

"Great." She activated her communicator. "Alice, Magyari here. Tell the captain that we have a plan that may yet save the ship. I'll tell you more once we get to the hanger bay."

-----


	13. Into The Sun

Whale King Dark Star

Above the Badlands

1730 hours

"Move it, people! We don't have much time!" Technicians scurried around the Dark Star's massive Zoid hanger bay. Sel sat in the open cockpit of her Dark Horn, shouting orders at anyone in sight, motivating them to move as fast as possible. "Bekka, you there?"

"Yes captain?" Her face appeared on the comms screen. "What do you need?"

"Is your Zoid ready to go?" She asked.

"Uh yeah..." Bekka replied. "But I'm not sure what getting in is going to do..."

"Don't worry about it now." Sel replied. "Just move your Zoid to the forward elevator, and let the technicians know once you're there."

"Uh..." She seemed nervous rather then her usual excited self. Sel couldn't blame her. "Yes captain", she finished and closed the link. Sel could see the Heldigunner slowly crawl towards the forward elevator.

She opened a link to Bob next. "Status, Bob?"

"All systems ready, Captain." He replied. "What do you need me to do?"

"Move your Zoid to the rear elevator, and turn it so it is facing directly aft. Inform the technicians once you have arrived."

"Yes captain." He replied, and closed the link. She saw his Heldigunner turn around, and watched as it walked past her Zoid.

"Nothing for it." Keeping the cockpit open, she slowly walked the Darkhorn towards the middle of the ship, stopping it on the central elevator. She leant out of the cockpit, and shouted to one of the technicians. "Okay, I'm in place. You all know what to do. And remember, tight binds on the ankles and the base of the tail."

"Yes captain!" A tech shouted. Groups of men ran towards her Zoid, dragging massive cables behind them. Clambering onto the Zoid's ankles, they began to wrap the cables around them, securing them into place around the machine's massive legs.

The Darkhorn grunted angrily. Sel blinked in surprise for a second, then smiled. "You don't like being tied down, right?" She said, as if she was talking to the Zoid. "It's for your own good, trust me." The Zoid grunted, as if not entirely convinced. Living war machines? She asked herself. Who came up with the idea?

A comms window blinked open, with Bekka appearing in it. The screen was shaking, and there were angry hissing noises in the background. "Captain!" She shouted. "My Heldy doesn't like the cables! it's having a temper tantrum!"

"Just try to calm it down." Sel replied. "Think calm thoughts and reassure it. It'll pick it up through your neural link."

"Thanks." She said and closed the window. No sooner had that one closed as another one opened this time with Matt in it.

"You sounded like an instructor there." Matt said.

"I must be getting old." Sel replied, then laughed. "What's your status?"

"Corporal Senior and I are in position by the front ramp and awaiting your orders, captain." he replied, suddenly serious.

"Thank you for that, Sergeant." She replied. "You two are on stand by. If we need to, you two are to evacuate the ship as soon as possible, then cover the rest of us." She paused. "Hopefully, it won't come to that."

"Yes, captain." Matt replied, then closed the connection.

She sat back ofr a second. Only one thing left to do, she thought. Hitting a few buttons on the communicator, she opened a link to the bridge. "Bridge, Magyari here."

"Just a second." Alice's voice said. "The captain wants to speak to you."

"Right. Put him through." Sel's view switched over to the Captain.

"Captain Konstantinov." She began. "My men and I are in position for the operation."

"Thank you, Magyari." He replied. "You understand that I consider this operation to be both incredibly foolhardy and a risk to this ship."

"That may be the case." She replied. "However, in the absence of a better idea, I will be proceeding, understood?"

"Yes, captain." He replied. She noted the use of her rank. Clearly he had accepted that if anyone was getting them out of this, it was her.

"Good. What is our current status?"

"We've dropped to approximately 50 meters above ground level." He said. "The enemy have temporarily broken off their attack to reform their squads, probably before moving in for the kill."

"Thank you for that, Captain." Sel replied. "If you could now lower the three Zoid elevators and take the ship up."

"Yes, captain." He replied, then closed the link.

-----

Z-Five peeled his Z-Ray away from the rest of the squad. Dropping it down to only about fifty meters above the ground level, he zoomed towards the damaged Whale King. Today was his lucky day. The rest of the pilots were busy trying to reform their squads and push for a single, concentrated attack. He wasn't gonna be like that. Why attack with everyone else when a lone strike could claim all the glory and the promised bounty for the ships' destruction?

The Whale King loomed up in the distance. Its damaged right side was exposed to him. Perfect. Unlike many of the other Red Wings, he'd saved a pair of missiles for just such an opportunity. He dropped the targeting reticule onto the Whale King. After a few seconds, the computer bleeped to confirm the lock on. Perfect. Now to get a little closer to make sure of the kill.

He opened a link to Grant's Zoid. "Boss, this is Z-Five. Better get that reward ready. I'm about to bag this sucker."

"Understood, Z-Five. You have done well, my son." He replied, then closed the link.

Returning his attention to the Whale King, he could see that it was rising again. Also, for some reason, it looked like it was deploying its lower elevators. Could it have suffered some sort of systems failure? He thought. Then he noticed something on the three elevators. Black, bulky shapes... Could they be?

A burst of fire came form the central elevator. A stream of shells ripped across the Z-Ray's right wing, all but ripping it off. He grabbed the controls, and struggled to bring the damaged Zoid under control. Before he could achieve anything, however, a beam shot from the object on the lift. The beam impaled the Zoid, tearing straight through the cockpit. The Z-Ray continued to plunge for a few seconds before exploding into a brilliant ball of flames and debris.

-----

"One down." Sel said to herself. She opened a link to Bob and Bekka's Zoids. "Cade, Kahm, give me your status."

"Ready, captain." They both replied.

"Good." She indicated to her right. "You saw what I just did? That's what I want you two to do."

Unlike normal Whale Kings, the Dark Star lacked any airborne Zoid launch facilities. In essence, it was configured as a pure troop carrier. As a consequence, instead of the rear airborne launch bay it had a larger Zoid hanger and a third Zoid elevator at the back of the ship. At present, all three of these Zoid elevators were deployed while the ship was in flight.

Sel had ordered the technicians to secure her Darkhorn onto the middle elevator, while Bekka's Heldigunner was on the forward elevator, and Bob was on the rear one, facing towards the rear of the ship. The three Zoids were secured to the elevators by cables around their ankles and the base of their tails. (Sel had decided that securing cables around their necks was too dangerous and definitely liable to cause angry Zoids.) The idea was that they would make up for the Dark Star's crippled AA systems with their own weapons.

Of course there was a considerable amount of risk. They were relatively open and exposed. And if their cables were cut, there was every chance that they would fall off the ship to their deaths. On the other hand, Sel realized, if they'd stayed in the ship and done nothing, they'd have died anyway. And if they landed the ship and tried to fight from the ground, it'd be little more then a sitting duck, and they certainly didn't want to fight hordes of airborne Zoids form an unfavorable situation.

The other enemy Zoids seemed to have noticed what happened to their compatriot. As one, they dived towards the crippled Whale King, moving in for the kill.

"Brace yourselves." Sel said to the other two. "Here they come."

-----

"Attack!" Grant shouted across the Red Wing's channel. "Attack now! Kill them all!"

As one, the mass of red Zoids dived towards the damaged Whale King, firing their weapons at anything they saw. In return they were met with a hail of fire form the ships' few remaining guns as well as the three Zoids. Beams, cannon rounds, flak shells and explosions filled the sky, tearing into the mass of Zoids. Several of the Red Wings broke off their assault, passing to the front or aft of the ship. Those that did were greeted by a further hail of fire, cutting more of them down.

-----

Reven gritted her teeth as an explosion rattled the cockpit. Her Zark flew past the side of the ship, firing desperately at anything it came across, only to be greeted by a rain of heavy fire. Dodging and weaving, she managed to avoid the hit. "Where did they get the fire from?" She asked herself. "They were meant to be crippled..."

Her Zark flew away from the ship. Like her, it was shaken but unharmed. "What the hell is going on there?" She asked herself. Around the ship, the other Red Wings were still attacking and meting heavy fire. There was something under the ship, she noticed. Something unusual, that wasn't there before... It was so hard to tell. Black lumps under a grey Whale king at dusk were very hard to make out.

"Commander, are you okay?" A voice interrupted her thoughts. Looking down at her comms screen, she saw that it was Z-One. His Z-Ray was flying away from the ship. It was dented and smoke-stained, but didn't appear to be seriously damaged.

"Uh, sure." She said. "I'm just surprised that their supposedly damaged Whale King has been able to spit out so much fire."

"I think I've got it figured." Z-One replied. "There's a trio of Dark Zoids under their ship shooting at us. It looks like a pair of Heldigunners and a Darkhorn."

"That's crazy!" Reven yelled. "It's suicide! They're turning their Zoids into sitting ducks!"

"Yeah, but they're getting pretty good at shooting us down." Z-One replied. In the distance, a Z-Ray flamed and died. "Wow. I think that was Z-Three"

"Did you know him?" Reven asked.

"Yup. Cheated at cards." Z-One replied. "Snarky bastard owed me big time."

"That does it." She muttered. "I'm telling Grant. Hopefully I can browbeat some sense into him."

-----

Grant wasn't concerned with the fire from the ship. Somehow his Krark had managed to avoid the worst of it, allowing him to concentrate on attacking the ship. Around him, the air was filled with explosions and fire, and the sounds of his men dying. He didn't care. He wanted to destroy that Whale King and the peopel on board it at all costs.

"Grant!" A voice interrupted him. "Come in, Grant! This is Reven here!"

He angrily activated the communicator. "What do you want?"

"The Whale King has deployed three Dark Zoids on its underside!" She shouted. "That's where all the fire is coming from. They're killing us, Grant! We have to-"

He cut off the transmission. Dark Zoids. Heldigunners. Darkhorns. That Deadborder. it was them.

"All units!" He shouted over the comms channel. "They're desperate to stop us. So desperate, that they've deployed Zoids outside their ship. Whoever destroys a Zoid gets a reward. Destroy two, bigger reward. Destroy the ship, biggest damn reward you can imagine. Are you with me?"

There was a cheer from the remaining pilots. "Then prepare to move in. Take them on. Wipe them out. Leave nobody alive!"

-----

"Incoming!" Bekka shouted. Her Heldigunner's targeting system was tracking numerous Zoids flying straight at the three of them. Locking onto several targets, the back-mounted AA gun opened fire, spreading explosions across the sky. In response, the incoming Zoids opened fire with their various cannons. Her Heldigunner was rocked by several hits as the enemy Zoids passed by. Continuing to fire, she was sure she hit at least one as they passed.

Glancing around at her status monitor, she noted that her Zoid had been hit several times. While there was no serious damage as yet, the Zoid's armour had been damaged across the side. She opened a Link to Sel's zoid. "Captain, Cade here." She began. The enemy Zoids appear to be attacking me directly instead of the Ship."

"As I suspected." Sel replied. "Our task is to draw their fire towards us. The enemy will become focused on taking us out first. Our position means that they will have to expose themselves to our fire in order to attack us." She glanced at her displays. "What's your status?"

"I've been hit but no severe damage as yet" Bekka replied.

"Good. And you, Kahm?"

"The same, captain" Bob replied.

"Good." Sel continued. "Hopefully we can kill enough of them to discourage the rest and force them to retreat. Its likely that the Krark is their leader. If we kill that, we should solve their problem."

"Right." Bekka said. She closed the link. Turning to face the front of her Zoid and the ship, she simply announced "Bring it on" to the world.

Within a minute, she got her wish. Another group of Zoids came flying at her from the other side. Swinging the gun around, she opened up on them again. Her shells were joined by bursts from Bob's back-mounted gun, as well as bullets and beams from the Darkhorn's various back-mounted weapons. Several Reds fell from hits, before the remainder opened fire. Once again, her Heldigunner was rocked by hits. One of the rounds hit the cable on the rear ankle, snapping it. The Heldigunner slipped, sliding across the elevator. Scrambing with the claws and digging into the deck, Bekka managed to keep the Zoid on the lift.

"Why you little..." She began. The surviving Zoids passed around the other side. Swiveling the gun around, she kept firing at the retreating Zoids, her shells bursting in the air after them. One of them, a Zark was hit and began trailing smoke behind it. "Yeah!" She shouted. "Take tha-"

"Bekka!" Bob's voice shouted. "In front of you!"

"Wha?" She turned her attention ahead. A lone Z-Ray was charging at her form head on, intent on taking her out. "No you don't!" Hitting the triggers, her Heldigunenr opened up with all its forward-facing weapons. The shots ripped through the Zoid, literally shredding it and showerign the Heldigunner in debris. A chunk of wing salmmed into the Zoids' left foreleg, slicing deep into the armour and severing the cable there. The Zoid hissed in pain, shaking around on the elevator.

"Thanks for that, Bob." Bekka said, trying to bring her Zoid back under control. "I mean, you saved my.."

Bob seemed to be at a momentary loss for words. "Um... it's okay..."

Sel interrupted the pair of them. "What's your status, Cade?"

She looked around the displays. "I've got armor damage on both sides, and some damage to the left foreleg. Two of the cables are cut though."

"Right." Sel replied. "I'm ordering the techs to withdraw your Zoid into the ship."

"But captain!" She shouted. "I can still fight!"

"The risk of your Zoid falling is too great at this stage." Sel replied. "The technicians will decide if your Zoid is still good for combat. If some, they will re-attach the cables and then send you back out, got it?"

"Yes captain."

"Understand that I'm doing it for your own good." She finished. "Oh, and good work out there, Bekka." The comms window closed.

"Thanks" She muttered as the elevator retracted back into the ship, sealing off her view of the outside world.

-----

Reven watched as the Zark next to hers flamed, and then fell out of the sky. She thought she saw the pilot eject, but she couldn't be sure. "This is insane" she muttered to herself. She opened another channel to Grant. "This is Reven. We're getting slaughtered out here!"

"It doesn't matter!" He shouted back. "Their ship is crippled! One of their Zoids has retreated! We can beat them!"

"We're loosing Zoids left right and center!" She shouted. "We've got maybe a third of the original force left!"

"We can beat them!" Grant shouted. "We will not be beaten!"

"Right." Reven said, then closed the channel. She sat back in the cockpit, then opened a new link to Z-One.

"What's up, boss?" He asked. 'Besides the usual we're getting killed."

"We're getting out of here." She replied. "I don't care about what happens to Grant and I don't care about what happens to the others. I'm going to bugger off out of here. Then I'm going back to the base, stealing whatever I can and getting the hell out of there. You're welcome to join me if you want."

Z-One sat there, as if dumbfounded for a second. He blinked a bit and then replied. "Right. Sure thing, boss. need anyone to help with carrying stuff?"

"It'd be appreciated." She rpelied. "Besides, a Z-Ray and a Zark can carry far more then a Zark alone."

The two Zoids turned and banked away from the battlefield, leaving Grant and the few remaining Red Wings behind. "You know what I like about you, Boss?" Z-One asked. "You come up with the best plans."

-----

Sel fired another beam gattling burst at a retreating Z-Ray. The energy bursts ripped across its back, stitching a diagonal line from one side to another. Flames burst from its back for an instant before the pilot ejected. Checking her monitors, Sel noted that appear from plentiful armor damage and a shortage of cannon ammo her Zoid was doing fine.

She opened a comms window to Bob's Zoid. To her alarm, she saw that he was bleeding from a cut to his forehead and there was smoke in his cockpit. "Bob!" She shouted. "What's happened to you?!"

"Sorry captain." He said, and coughed. "I got hit... I wanted to do my duty so..." He trailed off and coughed again.

"Never mind that!" She shouted. "Bridge! Withdraw Kahm's Zoid immediately! Have a medevac team sent to the rear elevator ASAP!"

"Yes captain!" Alice's voice came through the link.

Looking around, two things caught Sel's eyes. Behind her, the Heldigunner being withdrawn into the ship's hull. And, in the distance, the Krark was circling around for another attack. If any of the other enemy Zoids had survived, they were long gone by now.

"It's just you and me now."

-----

Grant looked around. His men had abandoned him. he was alone, with only his Krark and the enemy Whale King. Looking below it, he could see that only one Zoid remained, the Darkhorn. He remembered a Darkhorn form before. It had come close to defeating him before he'd beaten it down. it wasn't that Deadborder, but it would do.

The Whale King loomed ahead, coming out of the setting sun. The Darkhorn lurked underneath it, its squat armored form seemingly defying him. He turned the Krark around, and swooped towards the ship.

"its time for you to die for what you did to me."

-----

Sel thumbed the trigger on her Darkhorn's master weapons control. Every gun that she could fire, she did. The weapons spat streams of bullets, beams, shells and rockets at the incoming Krark. Undaunted, the Krark's pilot fired back with everything he had available. Beams hit her Zoid, staggering it in place, the only thing keeping it on its feet being the cables.

The two closed at speed, still firing. The Krark veered to the right at the last second, slowly veering away while raking the Darkhorn's side with its claws. The Zoid bellowed in pain, Sel gritting her teeth and trying to shut out the feedback on her neural link. Swiveling the Hilbit Vulcan around, she continued to fire as the Krark retreated into the setting sun.

The rattling sound of the cannon firing abruptly stopped, to be replaced with the empty whirring sound of the Beam Gattling's motor winding down, the system overheated and shutting down. Behind her, the Krark flew off into the sunset. Sel breathed deeply, her mind trying to control the anger she was feeling from the Darkhorn along with her own anger and disappointment at not shooting down the Krark.

-----

Grant looked back over his shoulder at the Whale King. Right now the look on that Darkhorn pilot's face would be priceless, he thought. Whoever he was, Grant had beaten him. He had to know that. Now he could tear that Whale King apart and claim his vengeance... and then...

Grant burst out laughing, not noticing the numerous red lights flashing across the Krark's cockpit. He had won! He had beaten them all!

-----

Sel watched as the Krark disappeared into the sunset, then erupted into a brilliant ball of flame that stood out against even against the red of the setting sun. Leaning back in her seat, she sighed. It was over. She pressed a button on the control panel. "Magyari to bridge. Retract the elevator. The enemy is defeated."

-----

Some hours later, Sel was sitting in her office. She had just finished typing up the report of this battle. it was the hardest one she'd written yet; covering the full extent of the damage to the Dark Star's systems was hard enough. Three of her Zoids had been badly damaged, farm ore then they'd taken before. A dozen people had been injured, several seriously. And two were dead.

There was a knock on the door. "Enter" she said without looking up. The door opened, revealing Captain Konstantinov. he slowly stepped into the office, allowing the doro to shut automatically behind him.

"Reporting as you ordered." He began. "Captain."

Sel didn't look up. "Very good. You have the final damage report?"

"Yes, captain." he replied. "The Dark Star has suffered severe damage to its engines, weapons systems and communications systems. We have been able to stabilise the power systems, and are working to bring the engines up to full power. The weapons systems will take some work, but can be restored. The biggest problem is the communications systems. We have lost our long range communications and until they can be replaced, we have no way of contacting home."

"Thank you." She continued. "And the casualties?"

"We lost two technicians who were killed when the, uh, object hit." He began. "A dozen more crew members, as well as Corporal Kahm, were injured on board. Three of them are in serious conditions in the medical bay."

"And the object that struck us?" She didn't look up. She knew what was coming.

"At this stage, the engineers examining the impact say that we were rammed by a small airborne Zoid. The exact model is unclear from the state of the wreckage, but it does appear to be some form of Gildoler."

"Now Captain Konstantinov, you will recall that I explicitly stated that the Gildolers were dangerous and should be considered a priority target." She stated, flatly. "You will also recall that my advise was flatly rejected by you."

"Yes captain."

"Now I understand that you resent my position as overall commander of this operation." Sel continued. "However, you must also understand that I was given this command by the same authorities that gave you your command. You are to follow my orders at all times, is that clear?"

"Yes captain."

"Very good." She finally looked up at him. "How long will it take to get the ship into a semblance of a fully operational state?"

"With all due respect, Captain, we are hardly in any state to continue this operation." Konstantinov stated. "We need to return home to effect full repairs on the ship."

"That is not an option right now." Sel said, standing. "What I am about to tell you is in strictest confidence, captain. For the moment, you are not to tell anyone about this. Is that understood?"

"Yes, captain." He replied.

"Intel has located Major Kandrak's unit. They know that he is nearby. They also know that he has a copy of the Quentin Journal." She had exaggerated Intel's claims for the moment, but she wanted her words to have the full effect. "We cannot afford to return home now, as we may loose this opportunity. I'm sure you appreciate the significance of this."

"Yes, captain." He replied, slowly. Obviously her words had had the desired effect. "I will prepare a schedule for repairing the ship immediately."

"Very good. Dismissed." He saluted, then turned and left. Sel sat back on her chair. It was up to her now, she thought. Everything rested on her.


	14. Impudence

Outside Black Stump, the Wastelands

1250 hours

"I still don't believe the gall of those guys." Rick said. "I mean, attacking us like that."

"Yeah." Sandra replied. "It's not like we didn't warn them."

"True. Still, it was nice of that Red Scavenger to lend us his trailers."

"Yeah."

"Did we have to blow him up like that?"

"Of course." Vic butted in. "He was saying impudence to us. That is impudence.'

Long silence.

"Still, the trailers are useful." Sandra finally spoke up.

"Can't argue with that."

-----

Barney Ottoson was one of Black Stump's gate guards. His job was to stand there and watch out over the desert all day, monitoring anything that came into or out of the city. In the advent of an attack, his job was to sound the alarm and then run like hell, and hope the enemy had nothing that could fly, burrow, leap, smash through or step over the city's walls. But since nobody ever attacked the city, he felt the odds of him ever needing to do this were remote.

Something in the distance caught his attention. Picking up his binoculars, he peered into them, examining it. It appeared to be a trio of Zoids, a Gunsniper, a Shield liger and some sort of Command Wolf. All were rather battered and worn looking. The Gunsniper had one of its side weapons pods torn off, the Command wolf had a huge tear along one side, and the Shield Liger's "mane" looked like it had huge chunks torn out of it. Behind them, on a pair of Gustav trailers, they were towing what appeared to be the desiccated carcass of a Death Stinger.

They slowly walked up to the city gates, then proceeded through. All the while, they were talking to each other over their Zoid's PA systems.

"All I'm saying is that if I came across three Zoids towing a Death Stinger carcass behind them, I'd leave them alone." The Female Shield Liger pilot said. "Do you know what this says? It says 'We killed this guy. Don't mess with us.'"

"Given that it was a Red Scavenger," The Male Command Wolf Pilot replied. "I mean, those were mutant Zoids that attacked us."

"Wonder if they were leftovers from the group we wiped out earlier?" the Liger asked.

"They'd be pretty stupid if they were." The Wolf said. "I mean, they would have seen what we did to the rest of them earlier."

"Yet more Darwinian Roadkill." The female Gunsniper pilot finished. "It's sad."

They stopped just inside the gate. The Shield Liger opened its cockpit, revealing an angry-looking woman with one eye covered by a patch. "Hey mate!" She shouted. "Know where we could find a hanger and a hotel around here?"

"Ahhh..." He said, at a loss for words. "Um... Third on your left. Can't miss it."

"Thanks." She said, and closed the cockpit. The three of them, along with their towed trailers and Deathstinger, walked off. Barney just stood there, speechless.

-----

Kingswood Army Base

The Vinterlands

Colonel Warwick Pie stood in his office, looking out over his base. Below him a squad of Strike Zillas were preparing for another patrol, while Dragonflies passed overhead. He was a large, slightly overweight man in his early forties, with a prominent bald patch in his brown hair and small blue eyes, one of which he kept behind a monocle for some reason that he rarely elaborated on. Despite straining a bit around the waist, his uniform was impeccably neat.

"I know you're out there." He said to himself. "I know it. You can't hide from me."

There was a knock on his door. He didn't respond for a moment. It came again. "Enter" he finally said.

Without turning around he knew who it would be. It was his second in command, Major John Shepard. John was a tall man in his early thirties, with angular features, dark brown eyes and short black hair. He always wore a somewhat non-regulation black uniform (as opposed to the normal khaki) with a red officer's cap. Pie didn't mind the uniform. Shepard was an excellent Zoid pilot and he was proud to be his commanding officer. He was carrying a folder with him.

"Well?" Pie asked. Shepard had come to give him the daytime report on a particular operation that pie himself had instigated. It was a vital operation. It was imperative that it succeeded. Pie had put too much into this operation to allow it to fail.

"No report, sir." Shepard replied.

"Damn it." Pie said.

"With all due respect, sir." John began. "He hasn't checked in for two weeks. In his last report he said he was trying to evade airborne pursuers. With only a Legz, sir, I very much doubt he'd be able to survive for very long."

"You don't know our man as well as I do, John." He began. "He's very resourceful. He's very clever. He's going to make it, I can tell."

John sighed. "Yes, sir." He paused. "Have you, however, considered other options to acquiring this information? It makes sense not to rely on a single source."

The Colonel turned around. "You're a good man, John." He began. John knew it was anything but the truth. He was a cold, emotionless, ruthless killer who achieved results regardless of what he had to do in order to get there. On the other hand, he was loyal, resourceful and incredibly successful. Colonel Pie appreciated his good points and tended to overlook his bad ones. After all, officers who he could trust implicitly were so hard to find.

"Yes sir." He replied.

"I have considered this option." He said. "I want you to get every Legz we have left, and assign all our best scouts. to them. They are to scour the wastelands and the Dark Continent border area for one particular man. He may be the key to this situation. If he is still alive."

"Yes sir." John said. "Can I ask who this man is?"

"His name is Lars Kandrak. He was an imperial army major some fifty years ago. Disappeared under very questionable circumstances. Apparently was involved in a failed coup." Pie leaned on his desk. "A year later, the remnants of his group are found trying to cross into the Vinterlands from the Dark Continent. After a brief skirmish with our forces, they vanished again." He looked John in the eyes. "What little we got out of them suggested they had found something in the Dark Continent. Something. I think its what we were looking for. Not the usual bandits or renegades or wild Deadborders or Darths... no, it something more then that."

"Do you know what it was, sir?" John asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Not sure, but I have my theories." He continued. "It's something I've dedicated my life to finding."

John was uncertain of how to react, so he went for a default "Yes sir."

"Anything else to report, Major?" He asked.

"Yes sir." He replied sharply. "Captain Desmond says he has found an ideal man for our operation." He handed the colonel the folder. "She's a former pilot, and in fact, a former member of your command. Officially she was discharged due to post-traumatic stress rendering her useless as a pilot, but she is in fact listed as a deserter. Her mother died just after she was born and her father, another Zoid Pilot, was killed in action when she was young. No siblings or close relatives." He handed the Colonel the folder.

He thumbed through it then closed it. "Interesting. Give Captain Desmond the go-ahead to recruit her."

"Yes sir." He saluted and left.

Pie watched him leave, and then turned back to the window. They had to be out there, he thought. They had to.

-----

"Now this is the life..." Rick said as he soaked in the hot tub. He'd been here a good ten minutes and had no intention of moving any time soon. It had taken them some time, but they'd found the one hotel in the town with a hot tub (In fact, Sandra had loudly insisted on it). After the abuse they'd suffered in the last few days, nobody wanted to argue.

After booking themselves in and parking their Zoids, they'd cashed in the Death Stinger. Even in its dilapidated state, it was still worth quite a bit. It turned out that it had stopped fighting not due to the demise of its core, but simply because Geoff had been impaled on the Shield Liger's fangs. It was kind of distressing, they realised, that they'd put that much into killing it and to find that wasn't actually dead. (Vic had muttered something about it having script immunity). The Red Scavenger trailers had fetched a few extra creds, which wasn't to bad. Geoff's body had also earned them a bit of cash, as Sandra had assured it would.

They'd planned to put their Zoids in for repairs from tomorrow. Despite the heavy damage to the three of them (and a few growls of protest) they just wanted to relax and unwind for a while before having to pay for too much. Sandra had seemed very apologetic towards her Liger, he thought. Maybe its just all she put it through.

His train of thought was interrupted by the door opening. To his surprise, both Sandra and Vic walked in, dressed in only swimsuits ant towels (and, in Sandra's case, an eyepatch). It came as a surprise to him, to say the least.

"What?" Sandra asked.

"I, uhh..." He trailed off as he looked at the pair of them. Minus their normally baggy pilot suits, they looked somewhat different. Looking at Sandra in a swimsuit bought thew words "Storm Sworder" to his mind for reasons he quickly understood. If not for her scarred face and right arm (which to him looked like she had been rubbed vacuously with a cheese grater) she'd be quite attractive. Vic, on the other hand, looked to be less muscular the he'd thought. Heck, if not for her eyes, she'd be cute.

"We've lost him." Vic said as she put aside her towel and climbed in. Sandra muttered something and joined them.

"Who cares? This..." Sandra sighed. "This feels good. I swear, I must be one big bruise."

"You look it." Vic said.

"I always do."

"Well that's true."

"Uhh..." Rick began.

"What's up with him?" Sandra asked.

"Maybe he just isn't used to seeing his workmates in bikinis." Vic stated.

"I work in a comic company." Rick said. "It's the last thing I'd want to see."

"Any reason?"

"Most of them were fat, middle aged men."

"Ewww..." Sandra replied. Vic giggled.

The two of them settled back into the tub. After a few minutes, they both managed to look relaxed. This was something Rick was unused to. Sandra seemed to always look angry to him. Usually she was shouting at him for something he may or may not have done, swearing at Vic for whatever she had just done or said or shouting obscenities at opponents and cursing their parentage. Vic on the other hand looked very odd relaxed, Usually she had a very intense and focused look in her eyes. When she did show any sort of expression, it was usually that grin of hers that looked like she was about to bite. Now she looked surprisingly clam. He'd seen them like this before, of course. Its just that it was so rare for them both to be this relaxed. Or undressed.

"So how do the Zoids look?" Sandra asked.

Rick had been placed nominally in charge of looking into this. He'd done it in a purely minimal sense. "Yeah, I got someone to take a look at 'em. Only the Shield Kitty has any severe systems damage; the shield generator and right rear leg need a lot of work they said. The Gunsniper's mostly just armour and getting the Weasel Pod fixed. My Woof has a rip along his whole right side that may take some work. I figure we can book 'em all in tomorrow to get a final damage tote bill and some repairs done." He lipped all this off while desperately trying not to look at Sandra's chest.

"So nothing terminal then?" Sandra asked. Rick suspected that she cared a lot for the Shield Liger, despite all the names she called it.

"Naw. They're survivors." Rick said. "'sides, if they were gonna up and die on us, they would have done it while we were dragging that Death Stinger 'cross the desert."

"As long as Spud's good." Sandra finished.

"Just wondering, you think we've seen the last of all those random attackers?" Rick asked.

"Let's see..." Sandra began. "There was the morons in the Gusacks, the tools in the Cannon Torts and the Gator, that fruit in the Snipe Master, oh and the Deathstinger." She counted on her fingers. "Reckon that those Reds were a part of it?"

"Maybe they were wandering desert loonies." Rick replied. "I dunno... we have a whole bunch of attacks in one day, then nothing. If those Reds were related, they left it very late."

"We lost our shadow." Vic said.

"What?" Both Rick and Sandra looked at her.

"Our shadow. A single Sinker following us above. He was good. Very elusive." She casually replied leaning back in the tub. "This is niiiiice."

The two of them blinked for a second. "Um... when did you notice this?" Sandra asked.

"When we went into the town." She replied and then shrugged. "But I didn't think he was important."

"And he was following us for how long?"

Vic shrugged again. "Dunno. For a couple of days after we did over the Stinger, but he vanished well before we met the reds."

"And... you didn't think to tell us?" Sandra said, slowly.

"Like I said, not important." She settled down into the tub. "Oooooohhhyaaaaahhhh...."

Rick reached for a pencil and a clipboard. "Right... put in a Sinker..."

"What's that?" Sandra asked.

"That?" He replied. "Just my spare clipboard for when I'm in the bath. It's got a waterproof cover on y'see."

"Why do you need that?" She asked.

"In case inspiration strikes me when I'm in the bath. You never know."

"Right." Sandra replied. the tone seemed to suggest 'well that made no sense whatsoever.' "But one thing. You take this as an opportunity to do pics of us in bikinis, I will personally ram that clipboard sideways right up your date!"

"Yes sir!" Rick squeaked back. He didn't know what his 'date' was, but he was willing to take a good guess.

-----

Spiral Mountain

The Wastelands

Spiral Mountain was a rather unique looking landmark in and of itself. A thin mountain, bizarre acts of erosion had cut a spiral path up its sides. It was a place that had been traditionally avoided by the Wastelands inhabitants. Legends spoke of it being haunted, a mountain of eternally damned spirits. Of course, the likely source of the legend was the sound of wind rushing through its spiral passages, but the reputation kept people away.

That had suited Grant and Reven fine. They'd found a large cave system at the base of the mountain that had been used to build the Red Wings' base. The mountain had also served as a nesting site for the Zarks and Terrareds that had become the basis of the Red Wings' force. It was on this mountain that Grant in his Mammoth and Reven, then piloting a Zark, had captured the wild Krark that she piloted.

Today the only living things on or below the mountain were the two people moving around inside the abandoned Red Wings base. Reven and Z-One had returned to the base, intent on stealing anything that wasn't nailed down. They'd replaced most of the external weapons pods on their battered Zoids with cargo pods, and were currently stuffing them with anything they could carry. This had mainly consisted of supplies and valuables looted form the rooms of the other pilots.

"Hey did you know Pedro had a wife and kid?" Z-One said as he walked back into the hanger, carrying a huge cardboard box. "Sexy wife too."

"No I didn't, and nor do I care." Reven replied as she stuffed another package into a cargo pod. "Find anything good?"

"Not much..." Z-One replied. Going through his former comrades stuff had been a little disinheriting. Some of them had been friends, scum of the earth that they were. Then he'd found Z-Five's room and all the cash he'd stolen on his bent card games. Then any regrets he'd had about looting their possessions was long gone. "Bit of cash, few valuables."

"Figured as much." Reven said as she closed the cargo pod up. "I went through the vault and emptied it out. We've got a good cash supply that could last us through a few months and Zoid repairs. Or we could just splurge it all on a big purchase. I've got a few ideas myself."

"Really?" Z-One asked.

"Well, I was thinking that with a Zark and a Sinker, we could try to pull it off as Mercenaries. While there are plenty out here, very few of them use flyer type Zoids, so we've got a head start there." She explained. "We could get us a few CPs ad we'd be set."

"Sounds like the proverbial plan." He replied. "What do you want to do with that thing?" He asked, indicating to the battered Serpent that Grant had used to get to their base to begin with. It was sitting in a corner of the hanger where it had been left after they bought it in.

"Leave it." She replied. "We can't take it with us. Besides, it's little more then junk on wheels. If we want we can come back later, get it and sell it off for some more cash. But I'd sooner risk leaving it here alone then leaving a real Zoid. Besides, I'd planned to come back to get some weapons. No sense in paying for what we can steal."

"Makes sense." Z-One said, closing the last pod. "All done here."

"Good. I'm finished too. Ready to go?"

He looked around the nearly empty hanger that had been, until recently, packed with Zoids and pilots. More importantly, it had been his home orf the last two years. "hey boss?"

"Yeah?"

"You gonna miss this place?"

Reven looked around. "No. Not in the slightest. Now let's go."

-----

Whale King Dark Star

Over the Wastelads

The Dark Star's briefing room hadn't suffered to badly compared to other parts of the ship. Like much of the ship, everything had been sprayed by the sprinkler system and some of the furniture had been thrown around, but that was it. There had been no real damage to the room, and it was declared to be immediately operational.

Following her discussion with the Captain, Sel had decided to move ahead with her new mission. She had no way to contact her superiors to request additional information, and she didn't want to loose this opportunity by returning home. So she'd made the decision to break with the assignment's current classified state and inform her men of their assignment. She figured that the consequences of breaking with her orders were outweighed by the risk of what could happen if she didn't succeed with the operation.

Due to a lack of intelligence, she'd settled for a less precise method of locating her target. The Dark Star's crew were using all the remaining comms gear to monitor communications across the wastelands. Then they sorted through what they got to see if there was anything useful. She was concentrating on the P5M sector that Intel had first suggested they were in, but realised that the information was old and possibly inaccurate.

In the meantime, she had called a briefing to fill her men on the situation. Unlike most briefings, she was there first, waiting at the front of the briefing room she had become so accustomed to. To her surprise, the pilots all entered as a group, all early. After giving them a minute to take their seats, they began.

"Before we begin, you must understand that this information is classified. You are not to discuss it with anybody." She looked at them. Their looks suggested that they understood what she was saying. "Shortly before the Dark Star was attacked, I received new orders from command. These orders outlined our latest targets. Now while I know that in past the intel from command has been very sketchy and often inaccurate to say the least, I want you all to take this seriously." There was a round of nods from the assembled pilots before she continued. "Intel has identified what they believe to be Major Lars Kandrak's unit."

She let this sink in for a moment. The looks her men were giving her gave away their surprise. She imagined she had looked like that when she received the orders from command. "Captain?" Bob began. "Is this... this information. Is it correct?"

"At this stage, I have to assume it is. There is too much at stake for me to disagree."

The holoprojector activated, showing a 3D projection of a map of the P5M sector. It highlighted the various features of the sector; the mountains, the two towns, several waterholes and a few other features of minor note. "We believe that his unit is somewhere in this sector. As yet, we haven't pinned down exactly where, but we are using every resource at our disposal to locate them. The crew are working around the clock to achieve this, even at the expense of repairing the considerable damage to the ship. That should give you some idea of how important this is to us."

The projector changed again to show a man in his early twenties. He was tall, muscular and quite handsome, with a square jaw, strong features, dark eyes and short black hair. He wore a uniform that resembled an older if more elaborate version of the Imperial uniform. "You will all recognise this face. Major Lars Kandrak. You will also be aware that this picture is almost fifty years old. it is well within reason for him to still be alive. And while it is expected that his considerable skills as a pilot may have diminished with age, it is also worth remembering that he had a sharp tactical mind. He succeeded where his fellows failed. He escaped justice and has survived on the run for this long."

The picture changed to a second man. He was short and wiry, with a slightly oversized head, wide eyes with small pupils and messy blonde hair. He wore the same uniform as Kandrak, but notably less elaborate. "This is the true danger to us. This is the late captain Adrain Quentin, who acted as an aide to both major Kandrak and Colonel Chrom. He kept a painstakingly complete journal of what happened. Everything they did, everything they saw, everything they fought, everything they experienced is recorded in there in minute detail. This includes their route to and from the Dark Continent and into and out of the Twilight Valley. The journal was kept in electronic format, and it is beloved that Quentin distributed copies of it to Kandrak, Chrom and McShann before his death. If Kandrak does have a copy of the Quentin Journal, it would constitute the biggest threat to our security ever."

There was a pause. "Should a hostile power discover the Quentin Journal and act on the information contained within, then it would be the end of everything we have worked for. Our land, our people, our destiny would all be destroyed."

-----

Time and place unknown

It was happening again, exactly as he remembered it.

The flames of the burning city surrounded him and his Zoid. It had been his doing. He'd expected it, yet it was still hellish to endure. The air around him was filled with the sounds of battle. Zoids stomped past, weapons fired, missiles flew, explosions tore through the air and people died. His comms system echoed with the sounds of men fighting and dying. The few survivors of his unit were gathered around his Zoid, like remoras clinging to a shark. A few more brave souls had gone ahead to scout the way, the route that would hopefully lead to freedom.

Stepping around a burning building, he sighted something in the middle of a crossroads. It was the armoured form of a Red Scavenger, sitting motionless in the middle of the street. Zooming in on its shell, he knew why it wasn't moving. The whole Zoid had been riddled with fire from all sides. Whoever had destroyed it had gone way beyond what they needed to do, he grimly thought. He couldn't see the Zoid's cockpit to ascertain if the pilot had survived, but he suspected he didn't need to.

"Major! I think we've found it!" A vid-window popped up on his screen. The pilot was a young woman, one of a few in his unit. He tried to recall her name... Tanya or something. It wasn't important now. he had more pressing concerns.

"Very good, pilot." He replied. "Hold your position. I'll be there soon."

"Yes sir."

His troops moved through the brining city. In the background, the sounds of fighting continue, but began to fade. Either they were getting further and further away from the battle or the fighting was dying down. He grimly considered the options. Hopefully it was the former. He had no doubts who the eventual victor in this battle would be. He just hoped the rest of his troops would last long enough for him to get away.

The massive rock walls loomed ahead of him. A pair of Kreeps waited by a large pile of boulders that jutted out from it. "This appears to be it, sir." The female pilot said. "We looked all along the wall and it was the only thing we could find that wasn't a sheer cliff face."

Zell. That was it. "Well done." He replied. "Men, I need you to shift these boulders immediately. If we are to make good our escape, we have to get out of here. You two Kreeps will keep watch with me."

"Yes sir!" came the chorus of replies from his soldiers. A group of Stangs and Spartaks moved out from around his Zoid and began moving the boulders with their claws and vice hands. The going was slow, the pile of boulders considerable. After what seemed like an eternity, they had opened a small hole in one side that lead onto a dark tunnel. Small enough for a Kreep to go through. One of the Stangs peered behind the pile.

"Sir! It looks like there's a tunnel around here!"

He smiled. That useless supply captain's information was correct. They did have a way out of here. He thought of the riddled Red Scavenger he'd passed earlier. At leas he'd been good for something. "Good work men. Zell?"

"Yes sir?"

"I want you to drive down the tunnel and tell me what you find."

"Yes sir!" The Kreep crawled off into the tunnel. About a minute later, it emerged.

"Well?" He asked.

"I'd say its about a hundred meters long and eighteen meters high, sir." She said. "The far end is blocked with another loose pile of boulders."

"Excellent!" He replied. "Keep working, men! This is our chance for freedom."

After a while enough of the rubble was cleared to allow all the Zoids to enter. The Spartaks and Stangs entered first, to begin work on clearing the other end, Soon they'd cleared a passage to allow the smaller Stangs to crawl out the far end. With work that tunnel grew larger, until he could manoeuvre his lumbering Zoid through the passage. He blinked as he saw daylight for the first time in days. While it was still a dull red, angry looking sky, it was the real world outside.

"We're free!" One of the Spartak pilots shouted.

"Not yet, soldier." He replied. "Stangs, Spartaks, you have new orders. Return to the tunnel. Restack the rubble so they don't know where we are. If they find this escape route, they will know where we have gone. Once potu have restacked as much as you can, use your guns to seal the rest."

"Yes sir!" The Zoids vanished into the tunnel.

"Zell, you are to scout ahead. Find us a safe path to the Whale Sharks and report back. Tell me if you find any of the others. And keep an eye put for enemy forces, especially the Reddras."

"Yes sir!" The Kreep sped off.

He looked down into the valley below. There were plenty of destroyed Zoids littering the landscape. All of them, he reflected grimly, were Stangs, Spartaks and Kreeps. Damn. Couldn't they have at least taken out a few of the enemy with them?

"Fire in the hole!" The shout came from a trooper in the tunnel. A gaggle of Zoids fled from the tunnel, followed by the sound of an explosion and smoke and rock dust. "Sir, the tunnel is sealed!" One of them enthusiastically reported.

"Very good work, Pye." He replied. "Now stand clear." He turned his Zoid's massive guns on the roof of the exit. Rick crashed down, half burying it. "Now cover the rest up as soon as possible."

"Major!" Zell's face filled up his screen. "I found the colonel... I think."

"Show me" he replied.

"Yes, Major." She said. Another image appeared on his screen. It was gruesome, to say the least. It looked like a Gordox, or at least, a vaguely Gordox-coloured lump. It lay in the middle of a field of broken shale, literally torn to pieces. The head, half the spines, the guns, even one of the legs looked like they had been torn off. Not shot, he reflected grimly, but torn. There was debris scattered everywhere around it, but precious little sign of the cockpit. He realised that whoever had done this didn't want the pilot to survive.

"Right. All men, move out!" He gave the order. He didn't care that they hadn't found the Whale Sharks as yet. He just wanted to be away from here.

A high-pitched squeal tore through his head. The world around him was engulfed in a brilliant white light. He sat up to find himself in a bed. Looking around, it appeared to be a shabby bedroom. Where was he? He asked himself. Yes, the wastelands. He remembered now. He'd had the dream again. His mind had cast itself back to those days so long ago.

He smiled to himself, then laughed. He had been so afraid back then. Now he would have his moment.

-----

Foothills of the Bookend Mountains

The Wastelands

After resting up for several days, as well as getting their Zoids repaired, Rick, Sandra and Vic had decided to get themselves another job. One had presented itself to them very quickly. It seemed simple in theory. A small group of bandits had been hassling outlying communities. Their job was to hunt them down and stop them from ever doing it again. The group were said to be small and only equipped with small, older model Zoids. Figuring it for an easy task, the three of them had trekked out into the desert in search of this group.

Two days later, they'd found them. The problem was that they were holed up in an old, abandoned fortress. While the fortress itself was rather decrepit and its facilities long since stripped, the walls were still solid and intact. The bandits were aware of their presence, and were hiding behind the walls, taking the occasional pot-shot at them through the odd gap in the wall. In return, Rick, Sandra and Vic had ducked behind cover, trying to think of a way to get past the walls.

A tense stand-off had emerged. Neither side was willing to move form their current position. Sandra was convinced that they had firepower on their side, but their enemies had the advantage of a superior position and she knew they weren't going to come on out.

"You guys still down there?" One of them shouted from the fort, presumably over his Zoids' PA. "You might as well give it up!"

"Why?" Rick asked. He was trying to get a look at the enemy, in the hope he could pluck them off with his Command Wolf's long-range cannons.

"Why?" The bandit replied. There was a pause. "Well, 'cause we've got a... a Trinity Liger in here! Yeah! And you guys are in real trouble if we decide to unleash it."

"Yeah!" Another one joined in. "It's really powerful!"

"Nobody can escape the Trinity Liger!" the first one continued.

"It is over now!"

"The devastation will be enormous!"

"Well, we better listen to them." Rick said, ducking his Wolf back down.

"Why?" Sandra asked. "They're just blowing off at us."

"But they've got a Trinity Liger up there!" Rick all but shouted back. "If they use that, we're tooled."

"Rick, two things." Sandra said, calmly. "First, you said tool again."

"Damn."

"Second thing, they're bluffing."

"How do you know that?" He asked.

"Simple. There's no such thing as a Trinity Liger."

"There isn't?" Rick asked.

"No, there isn't." She said, sternly "It's a myth made up by video game marketing executives."

"Naw, it's gotta be real. I mean, everyone's heard of it, right?"

"Rick, that doesn't prove anything." Sandra said, clearly trying to remain calm. "You should know that, given what you used to do."

"So no Trinity Liger then."

"No."

There was a long pause. "So what about Lizar then?" Rick eventually asked. "Is it real?"

"No! There is no such thing as Lizar!"

"You sure?"

"No! We are not having this conversation" Sandra shouted back, her liger all but roaring in his face.

"Hey..." Rick was about to say something, when he trailed off. "Where's Vic got to?"

Sandra was about to reply, when she stopped and looked around. There was no sign of Vic or the Gunsniper. Damn. "That girl is trouble." She muttered. "She's gonna get us all killed."

"Or nearly get us killed and then save us all." Rick added.

"Yeah..." Her Liger looked around furtively. "Why did you hire her anyway?"

"Me?" Rick asked. "I thought you hired her!"

Sandra was about to say something, but then she stopped. There was a long silence, punctuated by two rather loud shots. Vic's face popped up on their comms screens, smiling in a distressingly cheery way. "All done!" She announced.

"What... what happened?" Rick asked.

"There were two Godos in there. I bagged them. They looked like junk before... guess they are now." Vic said. "What is the plural of Godos anyway?"

Dead silence.

"That does it." Sandra muttered. "Hey guys, how about this. One more mission, then we go home for a holiday. What do you say?"

-----


	15. You are saying Impudence to me

Whale King Dark Star

Above the Wastelands

1200 Hours

"What do you think this is about?" Alex asked. The four of them had been called to the Dark Star's briefing room by Sel. She had said that it was 'very important', which ad been enough to get them all there early. As a consequence, they had all been sitting there for a good ten minutes now.

"I dunno." Bekka whined in reply. "I just want to know where the boss is. I'm bored."

"Be patient, Cade." Bob stated, flatly. "The captain said that this was important. She will be here."

"Glad to see you're back to normal." Bekka muttered. For a few days after he and Bekka had been in action against the Red Wings, he had been acting like something resembling a human being to her.

"You mean acting like a dick" Alex snidely said to her. She sniggered.

"Okay you two, settle down." Matt said. "Given what the captain told us a few days ago, this should be important." That managed to stop all three of them. He'd noted that Alex and Bekka had been joking a lot less since Sel had told them about finding Kandrak. As much as he enjoyed watching the pair of them, he also appreciated there were times when they should be taking things more seriously, like now.

"Sorry Bob" Alex muttered.

Before anyone could say anything further, Sel entered and took her usual place at the front of the briefing room. "Sorry to keep you all waiting." She began. "Fifteen minutes ago, we intercepted a distress signal from a mining community that had come under attack. The message was a rebroadcast of one that was several days old. At this stage we can't pin down the source of the message, but we suspect it is someone within the facility. As far as we are aware, the facility has been attacked and occupied by a small group of Zoids."

"Pardon me, captain, but how does this affect us?" Bekka asked.

"The message also included some camera footage." The Lights dimmed as the holoprojector engaged. It showed grainy images of Zoids attacking a building. It showed rust-red Molgas, a silver and red Gargantulus, red and tan Guysacks, red and black Godos and a similarly coloured Zatton. "Kreep, Legz, Stang, Spartak and Brox." Sel said. A rotating image of each Zoid appeared by the display. "These are the types used by Kandrak's unit. While it is possible that there are others that use these Zoids, this is what sealed it for us."

The camera image shook then straightened itself out. It showed a Spartak passing by the camera. "Pause" Sel began. The image froze in place with the Spartak walking past. She indicated to an insignia on the side of the head, and zoomed in on it. "I assume you all recognize the insignia." she said, flatly. As blurry as it was, they all recognised it. It depicted a skull on a shield, with a pair of swords crossed behind it. It was the insignia of his unit. Lars Kandrak, the butcher. The high-res file photo that popped up next to it was a confirmation they didn't need.

"We believe that Kandrak's unit is still holding the town." The display changed to a rotating 3D image of the town. Most of it was a mine that went into the sides of the mountain that lay at the north side of the town, with a mess of obsolete facilities around it. Surrounding that was a cluster of low lying buildings, mostly housing for the workers. "We suspect that they'll only have troops holding the mine proper. Their Zoids are too small and not individually powerful enough to spread out across the town. With no air cover, they will likely use the mine facilities proper as support."

"Did the town have any defenses?" Matt asked. "Any Zoids of their own?"

Sel shook her head. "Our information says they had nothing of consequence. Certainly nothing that could have held off their attack. We can safely assume that there is no active resistance in the town."

The map Zoomed out to show more of the outlying area. "The captain will put the ship down over here." An indicator on the map showed a flat area behind a mountain that was somewhat secluded. "We will move in from the east side of the mine. Black and Senior will use long-range bombardment to soften up their forces before we move in. Once we're in, I want you to stay back and continue the support fire, Alex." The display zoomed in on the mine facility itself and the surrounding area.

Yes, captain." He replied. He was concentrating on the map, mentally figuring the best firing positions. He may have a joking, lighthearted face, Sel thought, but there's no doubting his commitment. No doubting any of them.

"Matt, I'd prefer to use your Deadborder in close combat here. Its array of close-combat weapons that could be useful if it comes down to street fighting."

"Yes, captain." He said.

Ever since that battle against the Red Mutants, she had been reluctant to let the Deadborder get too involved in close in fighting. Something about the way it had acted in the close in, heavy fighting had worried her. True, it had done nothing since then. Maybe it was just nerves. So much rested on this battle, she thought.

"Captain." Bob began. "Do we know if Major Kandrak is amongst this group?"

"That we cannot confirm." She replied. "It is possible that he has set up a command center there, or he is directing his troops away from the battlefield. His own Zoid, that he last used is absent from what we've seen so far, but it is possible that it was bought in after the initial assault. Alternatively, it is possible that he used it as long range fire support, and it wasn't seen in the invasion proper."

She looked over all of them. "There also is the possibility that he is dead. Remember that if he was alive today, he would be in his mid seventies by now."

"So if he's with them, he's not that dangerous?" Bekka asked. She was strangely quiet. Normally she was exploding all over the place, very keen and enthusiastic. And she seemed to like nothing better then fighting. Today, she was different. Maybe she'd been re-reading her history.

"No." She replied. "Kandrak was an excellent pilot at his peak. Assuming he hasn't suffered any debilitating injuries and has stayed in practice, his skills should still be formidable. Additionally, he was a brilliant tactician. Even if he isn't in a Zoid, he can still contribute significantly to the battle."

"And if he's dead?" She asked.

"We continue anyway." Sel replied. "He may have passed a copy of the Quentin Journal to any of his men. Any one of them could pose a severe risk to us. Kandrak is only important because of his first hand experience. The Dark Star will arrive at the drop-off point at 1400 hours precisely. I want you all to be on board your Zoids and ready to deploy by no later then 1345.

She looked over them. They were all good people. Despite what she had said, this was not going to be easy. She was asking them to take on the most hated and despised man in their history. It was not something you casually asked of them. She sighed deeply. "and now if you could all stand."

They stood. Sel bowed her head, the signal for the others to do the same. "Before this battle, we remember those who came before us." she began. It was a prayer she had committed to her heart long ago. It took her back to a time when she was younger, more carefree, more innocent. Full of hopes and dreams. "We remember the world we lost, and those lost with it. We remember those who gave their lives to bring us to the safety of this new world, and those who gave their lives to give us a home here. We honour their memories while we commit ourselves to our future, the great day when we can return to our one true home." She paused. "We remember."

"We remember" the assembled crew replied.

-----

Matt had waited outside the briefing room while the others had moved off to get ready. After a minute, Sel emerged, pocketing a data disk. "Captain?" He began.

She almost jumped. "Matt?" She asked. "What are you doing here? You should be preparing for the battle."

"Practice." He replied. "I can be ready far quicker then any of those three."

"And a Deadborder takes longer to prep then a Heldigunner." She smiled, but he could see that it was weak and forced. "So what's on your mind?"

"Nothing, really." He replied. "Pre-battle nerves, really. I'm more concerned about you."

"Why?" She asked.

He shrugged. "It's a very big task they've put on your shoulders." He replied. "Being honest, you're a relatively young and inexperienced officer who's actual field experience is somewhat limited. This is an awfully big task that they've given you."

She shook her head. "Matt, this operation was only given to me an hour before we were attacked. They gave me the assignment not based on my skills or experience, but based on my availability."

"You got this because you were the only commander anywhere near the Wastelands, right?"

"Right. Given the choice, they'd probably have passed this to the Black Guard, or someone like Captain O'Bannon. But as none of them are on the same side of the world as we are, it has to be us."

He nodded. "So how are you feeling?"

"It's weird." She replied. "It's a mixture of tension and elation. I'm nervous about the battle ahead, and worried about what may happen if we fail. At the same time, It's very... very uplifting, knowing that we're going to close a very dark chapter in our history. And I feel, well, very excited at the fact that I've been given this responsibility"

Mat nodded. "One thing, captain. I take it you've reviewed the battles between Chrom's forces and our own."

She nodded. It was something she'd never forget. Images of Zoids dismembered, ripped apart, cut to pieces and riddled with cannon fire. Dead pilots who hadn't been gunned down as they abandoned their dying machines or had tried to surrender. "I know what you're saying, Matt." She replied. "I'm not like that. I don't want anything like that to ever happen again."

-----

Chipboard plains

The Wastelands

1300 Hours

"Holidays, holidays! La de da de da de da!" Vic was cheerfully singing as her Gunsniper skipped along, bouncing ahead of Rick and Sandra's Zoids.

"That girl worries me." Sandra said.

"Aw, leave off it." Rick replied. "We've been so busy of late and we're having a holiday soon, so I think she has every right to be cheerful." He smiled. "Besides, it's kind of cute."

"Cute?!" She spat out. "Rick, she's bouncing along in a grossly over-armed war machine singing happy songs! And we both know that she's a borderline psycho at the best of times! That's not cute, it's deeply disturbing! It's just plain wrong!"

"And it's our last job before our holidays." He said. "I'll let her be happy for once."

Sandra couldn't argue with that. Both of them had liked her idea of going home for a break after their next job. Between the three of them they certainly thought that they'd earned it. When they'd gotten another job in a few days, they were suitably excited. As far as they were concerned, the job was little more then a time waster before they knocked off. Besides, the spare cash couldn't go astray.

It seemed simple enough. A group of Zoids had over run a mining community near the far end of the Bookend mountain range, and occupied the attached town of Bad Post. The three of them were hired to get them out of there. Simple. The information their employer had given them said the attackers consisted of eight small Zoids, mostly Molgas, Godos and Guysacks. While the three of them were outnumbered, they were all in superior Zoids. Furthermore, in order to cover the whole facility, the attackers would have to spread out. It would be easy for them to eliminate the attackers a few at a time.

The three of them had liked the job. The owners of the mine wanted to get their facilities back as intact as possible, and were more then happy to agree to their terms. Even Sandra, who normally saw the worst in everything was feeling optimistic. True, she wasn't "bouncing around the landscape singing happy songs" optimistic, but she was feeling surprisingly good nonetheless.

"Hey Sandra," Rick began. "Why do you think a bunch of desert thugs would want with a mining facility?"

"Maybe they were sent by a rival company to cripple it and seal what they had. Maybe they're working for a whacked-out archeologist who thinks there's Starrior ruins under there. Who knows? Frankly, I don't give a flying Hammerock crap." Sandra replied. "Let's just bust these tools up a bit and get on with our holiday."

"I can live with that." Rick replied. "And besides, she's having a good time and hasn't said a conversation-killing thing yet. And if that's not a good thing, I don't know what is."

Sandra looked at the happily skipping Gunsniper. It was rare enough that Vic was anything resembling normal. But happy without hurting someone? That never happened. "You're right. Maybe we should just sit back and enjoy it while it lasts."

-----

Sel carefully traced her finger across her cheek, completing the pattern of the four diagonal red stripes across her cheeks. The red lines stood out against her dark skin, contrasting with her black hair and deep brown eyes. She'd experimented with other patterns, but this one was the one she liked the most. There. It was a strange ritual, but one that many other warriors practiced.

"Uh, captain?" The voice came from behind her. Turning around, she saw Bekka there, not quite looking at her. Like Sel, she was dressed in her Pilot suit, ready for battle.

"Yes corporal?" She replied.

"This isn't easy for me to say but..." She shuffled her foot a bit "It's weird, but I'm, well, I'm kinda scared."

"It's nerves, Bekka." She replied, completely dropping her 'stern commanding officer' attitude. "Thousands of lives could depend on what we do today. It's an awesome responsibility for a small group of young people top have. You have every right to be a little scared."

"But not me, captain!" She almost shouted. "I mean... you know, no fear, no weaknesses... you know me."

That was true. Words like 'fearless' and 'easily excitable' would capably cover Bekka. Sel had read her profile. Hyperactive, over eager, the odd moment when she acted like she was indestructible. Words like 'problematic' had come up. "To be honest, Bekka, it's a good thing."

"It is?" She asked.

"Yes. It shows that you're a human being, not just a killer. If you're afraid in a situation like this, you're just being normal." She looked around. "I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that Alex and Bob are just as nervous as you are. Heck, I'm sure Matt is as well." And I am, she added. But I'm not allowed to show it.

"Th... thanks captain." She replied.

"It's okay." Sel said. "I'd be negligent in my duty if I didn't help you."

Bekka smiled. "Yeah... Let's go out there and get 'em, okay?"

Sel looked her up and down for a moment. The black flightsuit concealed the mess of tattoos that covered her arms and shoulders. She almost looked like a normal woman of her age. "Just one little thing, Bekka." She said. "Hold still for a moment, and don't speak."

"Uh... sure."

Sel slowly traced the same pattern across Bekka's face that she'd done over her own. After a few minutes, she was done and stood back. "There. You're a real warrior now,"

Stepping around her, Bekka looked at the mirror. After examining herself for a moment (And contorting her face in a variety of odd ways) she turned back to Sel. "Awesome!" She shouted. "Thanks for that, captain!" Grabbing her helmet, Bekka ran from the locker room.

Sel looked at the empty doorway fro a moment, then back at her own reflection in the mirror. "Okay, let's do this." She sighed to herself. "Sometimes its so hard to be the strong one."

-----

Sel looked over her men. They were all assembled in the Zoid bay, standing to attention in front of their machines with their helmets under their arms. Each one of them, she noticed, now had some pattern decorating their face. They were all clearly determined, or at the very least doing their best not to show their fear.

"Men, today is a historic day." She began. "Today we will right a great wrong that was committed against us decades ago. The man who we are about to face is a criminal of the worst order. However, we are not here for revenge." This was the important point she wanted to make to them all. "We are here because it is our duty. We are here to bring a criminal to justice. We are not killers. If our enemy surrenders to us, we let them surrender. We are not like them."

She remembered the pictures. A Red Scavenger, riddled with shots far beyond what would have been needed to stop it. A dismembered Radox scattered across the landscape, its body cut apart even after it was disabled. A Gordox that had been decapitated torn to shreds by its attackers.

"Now I want you all to go out there and do your best. There are so many depending on us. We will not fail them."

-----


	16. That is Impudence

Outside Bad Post

The Wastelands

1400 hours

The three of them had arrived outside the town a few minutes ago. Vic's skipping and singing had stopped abruptly, to be replaced with her usual clipped sentences and weird moments. She'd gone straight into what she called 'observation', which basically mean going into the Gunsniper's sniping mode.

The town of Bad Post itself was smaller then anyone had figured. About half of it was the mine, which was huddled up against one of the Bookend mountains. (Nobody could remember its name. Probably Bad Post, Sandra thought. People around here had that much imagination). They'd set up on a hill overlooking the town, at what Vic had figured was the maximum range of any of the enemy sensors. From up here, they could see a few Zoids moving around in the mine itself.

"What have you got Vic?" Sandra asked.

"Let's see..." She looked across the town. "Ugly Zoids. Ugly, ugly Zoids. Little Kreepy bug in the mine area. Got a Spartak... two Spartak, Brox... say, what is the plural of Brox? Stang... Ooohhh... here's something. Someone's been shopping."

"What's that?" Rick asked.

"Spartak with Weasel Pod." Vic replied. "Looks bad. Doesn't match the rest of the colour scheme. Not Recommended. Kinda funny looking."

"Dangerous?" He asked again.

"Gives him lots of guns. Also could let him spot us before we can bum steer them."

"Solution?"

"Let me gloop him from here." She replied. "Easy shot."

"Do any of the others have any CPs?" Sandra asked. "The Kreep for example."

"Naw... just him." Vic came back.

"Probably their leader then." Sandra said. "It'd be very useful if we got him straight out."

"What about the Mine's Zoids?" Rick asked. The mine had been equipped with a pair of Tyrranozoids, a pair of Scorpozoids and a Tank Zoid, all of which had been modified for mining.

"Let's see..." She panned around. "One big pile of scrap Zoids. Looks like 'em. Funny looking... Tank doing something naughty to-"

"Thank you, Vic" Sandra cut her off.

"They're full of holes." She continued. "And someone's taken all their mining gear."

"What, you mean like it was destroyed?" Rick asked.

"No, taken." Vic replied. "Someone filched it."

"Weird. Why would they steal mining gear from junk Zoids?" Sandra asked.

"Stangs are close to Scorpozoids." Rick replied. "And the Spartak could use bits designed for a Tyrranozoid. Still, it is odd."

She looked at the pair of them. "Right, here's the plan. Vic, snipe the Weasel Spartak first, then get any others before they run to cover. Rick, once the Spartak's down, move about halfway down for long range support fire. I'll charge in. Once they run to cover, and I know they will, move in and bum steer the stupid tools"

"Works for me." Rick said.

"I like." Vic added, which was pretty much the seal of approval on any plan.

"Okay, let's go." She and Rick positioned themselves on the edge of the slope, overlooking the town. Below the Zoids didn't seem to be moving much, and were probably still unaware of their presence.

"Sniper... at the edge of the world, what can you see?" She muttered. "Before I take aim, I want to touch it." Silence. "BANG!"

The Gunsiniper fired. From where she stood, Sandra could see a small burst of flames from one of the Zoids in the distance, followed by it toppling over.

"Gotcha sucker."

"Good work, Vic." She shouted. "OK, Rick, Cover me. I'm going in."

"Right!" Rick shouted. The two blue Zoids charged down the side of the hill, while below their opponents were running around in panic and confusion. One of the biggest pros of the Gunsniper versus more traditional forms of fire support was that it was much harder to ascertain where the attack had come from, Sandra thought. A relatively quiet weapon, no massive explosion... and with a precise pilot like Vic, it was hard to tell what was happening. As a consequence, the enemy Zoids were running around pretty aimlessly, having no idea where the threat was coming from.

Another Spartak made a break for cover, before being hit by a pair of shots from the Command Wolf's dual long-range cannons. The Stang next to it tried to bolt for cover, but abruptly collapsed into a mess of legs, billowing smoke form its side, clearly another victim of Vic's fire. The others had more luck, running, scampering and slithering behind cover. Leaping form the side of the hill, she landed just inside the mine complex.

No sooner had she made it down, then a Stang leapt around form the side of a building, firing at her with its tail gun. The shot hit the right foreleg armour, doing little damage. Before it could do anything else, she fired back with the under slung impact cannon, the shots hitting the Stang and sending it sprawling back. Before it could get up, the Liger leapt onto it, crushing the smaller Zoid under its weight, before roaring in victory.

"Way to go Spud." She muttered. "I think everyone around heard that." The Liger made a guttural growl. "It's okay, I don't blame ya. These guys aren't exactly tough." She opened a comm. Link to the other two. "How's it going up there?"

"They're hiding." Vic replied. "My turn to go seek."

"Already on my way down." Rick added.

"Right. Let's nail these guys."

The Command Wolf leapt down, landing next to her. Thirty seconds later, the Gunsniper joined them. "So what's the plan, boss?" Rick asked.

"Split up and ferret them out. I figure you guys are confident with taking them out on your own. I think only Vic's at much risk form their weaponry-"

"If they hit me" She butted in.

"-If they hit you." Sandra finished.

"Let's go." Rick said. "I bet I can get more then either of you."

"Yeaaaahhhh..." Vic slurred.

The Command Wolf and Gunsniper ran off into the town, splitting up to head off in different directions. Sandra shrugged, then set her Liger into a run, loping towards the mine itself. Let them have her fun, she thought. This one was in the bag already.

-----

The Brox nervously poked its head around the corner of the building. Seeing nothing, the pilot cautiously stepped around the corner.

"Ahem."

The head slowly turned, looking behind it. Standing there was a single Gunsniper, seemingly overloaded with cannons on its back, snarling angrily. The pilot tried to bring his Zoid around but before he could, the Gunsniper opened fire with its array of weapons. The Brox staggered under the impact of the hits, before keeling over onto its side.

"Too slow..." The Gunsniper pilot cheerily added.

"Hey Vic!" A voice came over her comms channel, interrupting her before she could add anything. "What'd you get?"

"Brox. Dumb." Vic replied. "Ugly too."

"I got me another Spartak" Rick replied. "Little guy didn't see what was happening until it was too late."

"Wait a sec, you said a third Spartak?" Sandra asked, butting in on their conversation.

"Yeah..." He replied. "Vic got the one with the Weasel Pod, then I got one at range, then I just bagged one then. Bit him."

"That's weird." Sandra said. "The guy we spoke to said two Spartaks, two Stangs, two Kreeps, a Brox and a Legz. We've gotten three Spartaks, two Stangs and a Brox, with a Kreep and a Legz still on the loose."

"Maybe he miscounted." Rick replied. "Maybe he missed a Spartak."

"And picked up a Kreep by mistake?" Sandra replied. "Not likely."

"He didn't mention the Weasel Pod." Rick added.

"It's hard to miss. Uuuuugleeeeeee."

"Thanks for that, Vic."

"I'm just saying, that's all." She replied, sulkily.

"Say, where are the other two?" Sandra said. "I saw the Legz run off towards the mine."

"I think the Kreep ran, er... slithered off in that direction too." Rick added.

"Towards the mine?" Sandra asked. "That's weird. Why would they do that?"

"Heroic last stand?" Vic asked. "Impudence? Sheer stupidity?"

"No." Sandra replied. "If they wanted to get away..."

"They'd run the other way, right?" Rick asked.

"Yeah..." She continued. "Are you two getting anything?"

"Let's see..." Rick said. Between them, the Command Wolf and Gunsniper both boasted considerable sensory capabilitities, while the Shield Liger's sensory suite was rather pedestrian. With the Weasel Pod added, Vic's Gunsniper had a considerable detection range. However, Rick's Command Wolf boasted a broader range of sensors. "I'm picking up something... looks like an electronic emission from the mountain."

"What is it?"

"Not sure" Rick squinted into the readouts. "Maybe some sort of long-range tracking radar, probably surface based..."

"Like a gun control radar?" Sandra asked.

"Could be a sniper" Rick said.

"No. Gunsniper, Snipe Master use passive sensors. Avoids detection." Vic said.

"Than what..." Rick began

"Artillery?" Sandra asked.

There was a pause. "SCATTER!" They shouted.

The boom of heavy cannons firing came form the side of the mountain. A pair of explosions erupted in the middle of the town, right in front of Sandra's Liger. Putting the shield up at the last second, she avoided the worst of the blast, but was still thrown back by it. "What the frelling hell was that?" She shouted. Looking down at her status board, she could see damage lights showing up everywhere. The Shield was slowly cycling back into action. "Damn, it tooled my shield in one go!"

"Supercannons." Vic said.

"As in... Gojulas Cannons?" Rick asked.

"Yes."

"What can we do?"

"Try to get the frelling hell out of here." Was Sandra's reply.

"Good plan."

The Liger picked itself up and shook itself off. Before it could move, the building next to it exploded into a ball of flames, showering it with debris. "What was that?" She shouted.

"I dunno, but it just near-missed us as well!" Rick shouted back.

"Artillery" Vic replied. "Big guns. Possibly CP-07."

"That'd cover our mystery Kreep." Rick said.

"Yeah, and his two ugly brothers." Sandra finished. "This mission's a scrub. Let's get the frel out of here!". The three of them started moving as another round of artillery fire ripped across the town, including the supercannons. Vic and Sandra were thrown by near misses, but suffered no damage other then Sandra's cursing.

"You guys okay?" Rick asked.

"Head hurts." Vic replied. "Oh-oh."

"What's up now?" Sandra asked.

"Inbound airbornes." She replied. "Three. Small. Fast moving. Could be Pteras or Zarks or..." She trailed off.

"Rados" Rick finished.

"Tool." Sandra added. "This keeps getting better."

One of them launched a pair of missiles at Rick's Wolf. The missile slammed into the side, knocking it over. The Zoid picked itself up, shaking its head, the midsection between the legs smoking. "I guess that means they're hostile." Rick muttered. "What now?"

"Tool!" Sandra shouted. Tool tool tool tool tool!" She composed herself. "Any idea where the fire's coming from?"

"Mountain." Vic replied. "Zoids hiding in mine shafts along the side. Elevation allows them to get extra range. Well thought out."

"Right." Sandra began. "Here's the new plan. We try to bum steer the mountain like we did with the Death Stinger."

"Attack pattern?" Vic asked.

"Try Suicidal Insanity Four." Sandra replied. "And don't stop for anything!"

Suicidal Insanity Four was another variant on their popular line of "Run around screaming" attack patterns. Suicidal Insanity Four involved using anything available as cover while concentrating on moving, not firing. The idea was to get somewhere relatively safe (like point-blank with the enemy) and then figure out what to do next. It was best used against opponents firing at long range. Unfortunately, the Rados meant that finding cover was far from easy.

"Funny thing about these guys-" Rick shouted as his Wolf leapt way from another explosion. "Those Rados are packing more heat then they normally would."

"They might have CPs too." Sandra replied. "Great. These guys go on a shopping spree and then take it out on us."

"Fun." Vic replied. A nearby explosion and her Gunsniper being thrown around drowned out anything else she had to say.

"You okay there, Vic?" Sandra shouted.

"Not sure. Blood. Bad blood." She replied.

"Tool." She paused mid-run to look back at Vic. The Gunsniper was struggling back to its feet, either the Zoid or the pilot clearly dazed by the hit. Still, it seemed to be mostly intact, if limping. However, there was something behind it, diving down from the sun. One of the Rados.

"Be-" she began, but was rocked by another explosion. The Liger was tossed sideways, crashing and throwing Sandra around the cockpit. She could hear the sounds of alarms going off across the cockpit, and could feel something damp in her suit. Great. Blood. Last thing she needed. Looking up, she could see the Gunsniper slowly turning, as the Rado dived at it, ready to strike.

-----

Bad Post

The Wastelands

1415 hours

The Rado swooped down on the damaged Gunsniper, then suddenly pulled away. Clouds of flak burst around it as it soared away, followed by a single energy beam that ripped straight through the Zoid's body. The damaged Zoid pulled away, only to be caught by a hail of bullets that tore into it. The Rado trailed smoke for a minute, before exploding.

"What the?" Sandra asked. Turning towards the edge of the town, she saw a group of Zoids looming on the top of the hill. A Darkhorn (with its beam gattling smoking), a Deadborder and a trio of squat forms that she assumed were Heldigunners. One of them had a large cannon on its back. "Its you..."

A comms window opened, with the face of a woman with dark skin, dark brown eyes, black hair and red facepaint. Sel Magyari. She was pretty unmistakable. "What are you doing here?" She demanded.

"I could ask the same thing of you." Sandra replied. "We were hired to clean this town out, but we're having some problems with it."

"The same, more or less." Sel replied. "What's the situation?"

Another explosion nearly threw the Liger. "We've got a tool with a set of supercannons on the side of the mountain and three other big guns, probably Kreeps with CP-07s." She leapt away from another blast. "And three, uh, two Rados with CP-06s. Oh, and a Legz and a Kreep somewhere in the town."

"Thanks." Sel replied. "Matt, Alex, suppress those guns."

"Yes captain!" The pair of them replied.

"Bekka, Bob, take out those Rados. Keep your eyes open for enemy ground troops, take them if needed."

"Yes, captain!" Bob replied.

"Right!" Bekka replied. "Let's cook some chooks."

The Darkhorn roared, then charged down the hill into the town. One of the gunners on the cliff fired off at it, the shot going wide. In return, Bob opened up with his Heldigunner's cannon, planting his shot very close to the point of origin. The point of suppressing the gunners was not to hit them (Although it was a useful bonus if they did) but to make them retreat and not keep firing. Matt joined him the Deadborder's two G-Cannons pounding on the mountain positions. Above, the Rados pulled off from their attacks, uncertain as to whether or not they wanted to face the Heldigunner's flak.

The Darkhorn skidded to a halt beside the Liger. "What you have up there is probably a Gordox carrying a pair of Gojulas Supercannons. From the look of things, it's well dug in and protected from long-range counterbattery fire."

"Right." Sandra said. "And what do you propose we do about the big tool?"

"We can try rushing him." Sel replied. "If we both attack him at point blank range, we should be able to overpower him."

"Aren't you at all worried about those supercannons?" Sandra asked.

"Hopefully Matt and Alex can keep him covered with their cannons."

"But there's the risk of him blasting us while we charge him, right."

"Yes." Sel admitted.

"So in her words, its a rather foolhardy and risky plan, but its the best thing you could think of at the time."

"Well, yes." Sel admitted.

"You've definitely been hanging around us too long." Sandra replied, and grinned. "Let's go." She opened a link to Vic and Rick's Zoids. "How are you two doing?"

"Good now that they're not shooting at us as much." Rick answered. "Although Woof's got a big hole in his side."

"Same old, same old." Vic replied.

"Right." Sandra finished. "Sel and I are going to bum rush our supercannon-wielding friend. You two are to cover us and shoot anything you see. If you can get close, Rick, try to pick off some of the tools on the lower part of the mountain."

"Cool."

"Are you doing something stupid?" Vic asked.

"Yes." Sandra admitted.

"You have all the fun." She finished, and closed the connection.

"Right." Sandra said. "You ready?"

"Yes." Sel replied. "I'll lead and take any fire we get. Your Zoid looks damaged. Besides, I can take more."

"Cool. You can soak up the bullets for me." The two Zoids broke into a run through the town.

"If you don't mind me asking," Sel began. "What are your people doing here?"

"We were hired to clean out the tools holding the mine." Sandra replied. "We weren't expecting them to have air support or all the artillery. Pretty much our normal luck." She grinned a wry grin. "You guys?"

Sel paused a bit. "Pretty much the same. We're after the Zoids, not the mine, but it's the same thing more or less." Something about that didn't sound right to Sandra, but she let it slip. "You know," Sel continued. "This reminds me of when we first met."

"Yeah, only this time it's you bailing us out." Sandra replied. "I guess we'll figure out some way to thank you for it."

"If we can cut a deal like last time, it's all good." Sel said. "If possible, could we get first dibs on the pilots?"

Pilots? Sandra thought. An odd choice. Certainly the bounties on the pilots wouldn't be worth as much as the salvage on the Zoids. Something was odd there. Still, she'd worry about it when they weren't getting shells dropped on their heads. She flicked a switch open to the other two. "How are you guys going?"

"Great." Rick replied. "I've got you covered."

"You?" Sandra asked. "Where's Vic... Or do I really want to know the answer to this?"

"Oh, yeah. She found the other Kreep." Rick said, casually.

A voice came over the comm in the background. "Hello, little wormy!" it exclaimed with glee, followed by the sounds of gunfire.

"So yeah, everything's under control."

Sandra closed the comm as the two of them burst out into the open area towards the base of the mountain. Out where, it was little more then an open plain with the odd pile of tailings from the mine. "Sel, my Liger's better on the hills. It's probably best if I go first. 'sides, if you slip I don't want a hundred tons of Darkhorn date on my face.

"Fine." Sel replied. "How's the shield going?"

Sandra checked the status board. The Shield was showing as green, and functional at full power. "Its back up. Looked bad for a while there."

"Think you can keep it up while we charge up there?"

"Should do." Sandra replied. "I get used as a battering ram way too often..." She smiled. "When we're done, remind me to tell you about the Death Stinger we took down."

"Death... Stinger?" Sel muttered.

"Yeah. Now there was a world-class tool."

Ahead of her, a small shape skittered out form behind one of the piles. It was the Legz, which had been hiding there all along. Cool. No time to take it out, and she didn't want to go around it and loose her run up. That left only one option. The Liger charged forward, and leapt on the Legz. Pressing down with all its weight, it then sprang up onto the side of the mountain. Looking behind her, Sandra could see the small spider Zoid pressed into the ground, its legs splayed out around it.

Behind her, Sel's Dakhorn continued to charge towards the mountain, following the same path as the Liger. Unlike the fast moving, long-legged Liger, the Darkhorn wasn't much for leaping. As the Legz slowly tried to pry itself out of the ground, the Darkhorn simply ran straight over it, smashing it into the ground, debris flying everywhere. Ignoring the small Zoid, the Darkhorn continued up the side of the mountain.

"You know, that was a pretty mean thing you just did." Sandra said.

"What?" Sel asked.

"Running over that Legz like that. I mean, I know I used it as a springboard, but you just obliterated it."

"What Legz?"

There was a pause. "You know, Sel?" Sandra began. "You're going to fit in just fine with the rest of us."

-----

Rick watched as the two Zoids began their run up the side of the mountain. It amazed him that the Darkhorn, with its short legs and massive bulk ,was managing to make it yup there. Still, Sel seemed an oddly determined woman to him. Not nutty like Vic was, but determined. She'd make a great character for the comic. And the facepaint was great. She'd have wear it all the time. She'd really stand out that way.

Squatting behind a building, he sighted one of the Kreeps on the mountainside. it was mostly hidden inside a mine shaft, about a third of the way up. It was a good position. From there, the pilot had the advantage of elevation, and could crawl back into the mine for cover. Still, it was within range. he drooped the target sight onto the Zoid, then fired. The Command Wolf's two long range cannons fired, hammering the ground around the Kreep.

The enemy pilot must have been worried by this, as he backed the Zoid up, hiding behind the crest of the ridge. Rick fired again, the cannons blasting away chunks of rock before hiting the Kreep itself. The Zoid twitched and thrashed, before another pair of blasts put it down.

"Yeah!" Rick shouted. "I gotcha, baby!"

Suddenly a beeping noise grabbed his attention. Spinning the wolf around, he saw a Rado diving at him, preparing to strike. Before it could fire, an explosion behind it threw it off course. The pilot braked hard to get away, only to fly into several more explosions, one of which snapped the right wing in half. The pilot hastily bailed, leaving the small Zoid to crash over the horizon.

"Hey, thanks!" Rick called out.

A comms window opened, showing Bekka, the female Heldigunner pilot. To his surprise, she was wearing facepaint like Sel's. It looked... interesting on her. Yeah. On the other hand it kinda matched her tattoos. "Hey there!" She began, a grin on her face.

"Hi." He replied. "Hey, uh. thanks for that."

"It's cool." She grinned. "'sides, I can't let you guy shave all the fun."

Rick smiled. He liked this girl. He would have to use her in the comic. He'd have to get her phone number. Or at least, he would if she could get beyond "Can't say."

-----

Sel pushed her Darkhorn to its limits as it thundered up the slope. The massive machine roared, possibly in anger or resentment for her pushing it so hard. She tried to shut it out, and focus on the task at hand. Ahead of her, the Liger Leapt over a ledge, landing on the other side. This was it, she thought. No doubts. No fears. Its just another mission, like any other.

The Darkhorn thundered over the ledge, following the Shield Liger. Before the pair of them was the massive red, grey and tan form of the Gordox, a huge pair of black cannons on its back. She couldn't see the pilot inside the dull green canopy, but something told her it was him. The Gordox roared at the pair of them, but if it was in fear or anger she couldn't be sure.

"Ready?" Sandra asked her.

"Ready." She replied.

The Liger roared and leapt at the Gordox, firing its pod-mounted missiles. The shots peppered its side as it turned away from a head on confrontation. Pushing her advantage, Sandra charged at the Zoid, leaping at its side. The Gordox turned again, mostly deflecting the blow. The Liger crashed headlong into the base of one of the Supercannons, digging its claws and teeth into the massive weapon.

Figuring that the pilot was distracted, Sel charged at the Gordox, opening fir with the Darkhorn's Hilbit Vulcan. The shots ripped into the armour around the neck and foreleg, staggering it. Closing in on it, Sel prepared to ram it. Unfortunately for her, the Gordox pilot found a solution to both its problems at once.

Swinging its massive tail around, the Gordox slammed the spikes into the underside of the Liger, tearing it, and the supercannon free of its body. The Liger in turn crashed on top of the Darkhorn, sending both of them sprawling into a pile on the edge of the ledge, the supercannon's twisted barrel landing on top of the pair of them.

Before either of them could react, the massive Zoid turned to face them, its one remaining supercannon giving it a very odd, asymmetrical look. Instead of moving, the pilot fired the four-barreled impact cannon mounted its side. The blasts rocked the two Zoids, forcing them closer to the edge. Sel was shaken around in her cockpit, her shouders straining against the harness that kept her in the seat and away from serious harm.

She frantically pressed the coms panel. "Sandra? Sandra? Are you there?" Nothing. She could be stunned or unconscious or... Damn. Sel knew that the Shield Liger had been damaged beforehand. There was no telling what begin gored and blasted had done to it.

"Well, well." A voice filled the cockpit, chilling her. Even though it was older, it was still recognisable as the same one she'd heard in the historical tapes. The face that appeared on her screen matched it, It was older, lined and wrinkled with age, the dark hair now greyish white and with a long scar running across the right cheek, but it was still recognisable.

Lars Kandrak.

"I hadn't expected to find you people so far from home." He said. "It's been so long now... what is it, fifty years?"

She shook her head to clear it. The Darkhorn growled quietly, then slowly tried to stand. "Easy... " She muttered. The Shield Liger was still lying across the Darkhorn; she needed to move it as gently as possible. The black dinosaur zoid leant gently to one side, slowly allowing the Shield Liger to drop to the ground, before standing. "Kandrak, you murderer. I'll see you pay for what you did to us."

"Come on then." He replied. "Come at me, if you dare. Take me if you have the courage to face me." Despite his age, there was an air of confidence in his voice. "Come on, you impudent little girl, face Kandrak the Butcher. I'm here in front of you. I have to be the most hated man in your history. Or at least, the most hated one that's still living."

She remembered the pictures she'd seen. Burning buildings. Civilians lying dead and dying in the streets. Zoids standing amongst the carnage they'd wreaked. Spartak. Stang. Gordox.

The Darkhorn growled and then roared. "You monster!" She shouted, the anger and hatred filling her voice. "You must pay for your crimes! You don't even deserve to live!"

The Darkhorn charged at the Gordox, firing everything it had. The shots staggered the Gordox, slamming it back. Kandrak struggled with the controls, but managed to keep the massive Zoid upright. He fired back with the impact cannon, rocking the Darkhorn, but not much else. Roaring again, the Dark zoid charged, firing, its horn slamming into the Gordox's side near the base of the neck. The Gordox staggered and collapsed, crashing down, leaving its wounded side open to attack.

"And now, for your crimes, you will die." Sel stated, a dark, sinister tone to her voice.

"You... you can't!" Kandrak shouted, bleeding profusely from his forehead.

"I can." She replied, and then laughed.

-----

Sandra opened her eyes to an orangey blur. Blinking, the blurry world around her resolved itself to the interior of her Shield Liger's cockpit or, more to the point, what was left of it. The canopy glass was cracked, and various panels either showed red indicating damage, or simply didn't function at all. A strange, worried feeling filled the back of her head, a feeling of pain and distress. She realsied that it was her Liger. A quick glance at the controls showed that the Zoid was badly wounded, probably as bad as it had been by the Death Stinger.

"Easy, boy" she said, calmly. She tried to think calming, soothing thoughts. The Liger growled a bit, then stopped. "There... you okay? Can you stand?" The Liger growled again, then slowly stood. It was very shaky, and Sandra had no doubt that some of its leg motors had been damaged. However, after a moment, it stood. "There..." She said. "That wasn't so bad..." Then she looked out the cracked front windscreen.

Ahead of her, the Gordox was lying prone on its side, its foreleg bent away from the body at a very wrong angle. Sel's Darkhorn was standing on it, smashing its head and on repeatedly into the downed Zoid's side. It as clear to her that the Gordox wasn't capable of fighting back. The Darkhorn was attacking to cripple the Zoid, but to completely destroy its opponent.

"Sel..." She thought. It was possible that something had happened to her, and the Darkhorn was acting on its own accord. Sandra had heard of it happening, especially with particularly willful or strong-minded Zoids. Her biggest concern was that Sel may be unconscious or wounded, and the Darkhorn was running the show.

She flipped on her communicator. "Sel, are you there? Sel? come in!"

After a few seconds, an image appeared. It was Sel, but she looked different. Her face was twisted into an insane grin, distressingly like the sort of look she saw on Vic all the time. She was laughing, an angry, vengeful laugh. The sort of laugh one associated with master villains announcing their plans. But more striking was her eyes.

They were bright green A green that matched the eyes of the Darkhorn perfectly.

"What the..." Sandra muttered. That was definitely not right. "Sel! Can you hear me? Are you there?!" If Sel heard her, she didn't respond. The Darkhorn continued its relentless assault, goring and stamping on the Gordox's body. "Tool!" She shouted. What to do? Damn it... Maybe somebody else knew about this.

She flicked open another comm channel. "Matt?" She shouted. "Matt, are you there?"

Matt's face appeared, highlighted by the eerie green glow of the Deadborder's sensory systems. "I'm here, Sandra. What's up?"

"It's Sel!" Sandra shouted back. "Something's happened to her!"

"What?" He replied. "What's happened?"

"I think she's gone nuts or something, because her Zoid's just attacking a downed enemy and..." She tried to regain her composure. "I tried contacting her, and she was just laughing like a maniac."

"What colour were her eyes?" He asked.

"Green." She replied. "Bright green. The same colour as-"

"As a Darkhorn's eyes." Matt finished. "Put me through to her. I'll deal with this."

-----

Destroy. Kill. Crush. Tear. He is a murderer. A monster. He deserves to die.

The Darkhorn dug its horn into the Gordox's body again, then violently gouged upwards. The damaged foreleg tore away from the body, landing on the far side of the downed Zoid. She laughed again as the Zoid twitched, its pilot trying desperately to get up. The silly little fool.

"Sel!" A voice shouted, cutting through her thoughts. It was familiar to her, for some reason. "Sel, it's Matt!" Matt. Her second in command. Something he said came to her. What was it?

The Gordox twitched again. Casting those thoughts aside, she slammed the Darkhorn's head into its side again, tearing away huge chunks of structure. Various fluids spurted from torn pipes, like blood from a cut artery, spraying all over the Darkhorn's face. She had to destroy it, she thought. She had to destroy him.

"Sel!" Matt shouted. "Don't do this! You are not like this! You are not like him!"

Like him...

"Don't do it, Sel." Matt said again.

She remembered the pictures. A trio of Darkhorns firing on a lone Red Scavenger, filling it with fire long after it was dead. A swarm of Reddlers grabbing onto a Radox, tearing it apart in mid-air. A Gordox, cornered and alone, vanishing under a horde of Helidgunners, who dug into it, ripping it apart.

She stopped. The Darkhorn growled deeply, as if wondering what was happening. Its pilot had been driving it forward, urging it to destroy, and then had stopped. In the cockpit, Sel sat back, breathing deeply. "What... what happened?" She asked.

"That's what I want to know." Sandra said, her window butting in on Matt's.

"I..." she began. "I attacked the Gordox. I... I don't remember what happened."

"You went berserk." Matt replied. "You destroyed the Gordox, then continued attacking."

"What..." She looked at the destroyed Zoid lying before her. "And you stopped me."

"You can thank Sandra for that." Matt said. "She was the one who told me."

Sandra! She was knocked out and... "Are you okay there?"

"Me?" Sandra asked. "I'm fine." She looked around. "Although poor Spud is totally tooled."

"Destroyed?" Sel asked. She hadn't even seen what had happened to Sandra's Zoid. Turning around, she saw it standing there, battered but intact.

"No, but he'll never play the saxaphone again." Sandra finished, and then laughed.

For some reason that struck Sel. It was a completely inappropriate thing to say, but it worked for her at the same time. She laughed as well. "And how are you doing?"

"Well, I feel like King G and Gilvy used me as the ball in a soccer match. But that's usual for me." The two of them continued for a second.

"Sorry to interrupt." Matt interjected. "But I think you might want to check on the status of the enemy pilot."

The pair of them stopped. "Right." Sel replied. "I think you should know Matt, it is Kandrak. Or, at least..."

Sandra butted in, knowing that this couldn't end well. "I'll check him. Sel, you stand over me and look evil. If he twitches, go nuts again." The Shield Liger lay down and opened its cockpit. Sandra lept out, then ran over to the downed Zoid.

"So how's things going out there?" She asked.

"We've neutralised all the enemy units." Matt replied. "I've got the others rounding up the surviving pilots now, captain."

"Did any of them escape?" She asked.

"No, captain. We're secure."

She sighed. If any had gotten away, this would have all been for nothing. "Good work."

Bekka's face shoved in on Matt's. "Hey! It looks like someone stepped on this Legz! You wouldn't know anything about that, boss?"

Before she could say anything, another window appeared, this time with the Gunsniper pilot. "Oooh, Darwinian roadkill." She began. "Woooorm foooood." And then she grinned.

Did I look like that before? She asked herself. I never want to do that again.

She closed all the open channels to get a few seconds of peace. So it was over. Only one loose end to tie up.

Sandra's voice interrupted her. "Found our pilot. He's surprisingly old for someone who put up such a fight. I'd say he's in his late sixties or early seventies. Even then, he's surprisingly buff." She paused. "Or at least was."

"Was?" She asked. her heart skipepd a beat. "Why? What happened?"

"Dead." Sandra replied. "Took the tooly option and ventilated his own skull."

She sighed with relief. I didn't do it, she thought. "Right. Thanks for that. Don't touch the body, Sandra. I'll need to send someone over to recover it."

"Not a prob." Sandra replied. "I've seen enough homicides in my life to know what to do."

"Well?" Matt asked her on a new channel.

"It is Kandrak, or at least was." Sel replied. "He killed himself rather then be captured."

"I see." Matt replied. "Well, we accomplished our mission."

"Yeah..." She trailed off. "We did."

-----

Sel climbed back into the Liger's cockpit, and opened links to the other two. "Hey, guys. How's it going there?"

"Pretty good." Rick replied. "Got rid of the rest of them, thanks to the others." He looked around. "I think the girl in the Heldy likes me."

"And the town?"

"Unfortunately, the town is kind of, well..."

"Flat" Vic interjected.

"Yeah." Rick finished. "Flat. How are you?"

"Oh, fine." She replied. "Spud looks like a train wreck, but that's become distressingly normal of late." She looked around. "Sel went bananas but got over it."

"Went bananas?" Rick asked.

"Oh yeah. Totally wigged out, dropped the acid and shot the penguins." She replied.

Before she could say anything else, a new vid window, with Sel on it, butted in. "I'd, uh, appreciate it if you didn't mention this to anyone sense. Me going insane and all."

Oops. "And definitely not the glowing green eyes, right?"

"Um, yes please." Sel replied, reluctantly.

"Fine, but only on a few conditions." She said.

"Name them." Sel replied. Sandra sensed that whatever had happened there, she really didn't want anyone else to know about it.

"First, I want to know what happened to you there." She began. "Second, I want to know what was going on here, and why you were so eager to get that tool. Third, I want to know where the hell you're coming from."

"Promise to keep it all confidential?" Sel replied.

"Yes." Sandra stated. "You have my word. I just... I just need to know before I can trust you again. I'm not inclined to trust loonies."

"You trust that Gunsniper pilot."

Natch. Good one there. "She's a looney I've known for a while. I've gotten used to it."

"Point." Sel conceded. "Okay, I can tell you. But it will take some time."

"Fine." Sandra figured that this wasn't going to take five minutes. "What are you doing after this?"

"Not too sure." Sel replied. "Our Whale King is badly damaged, and in need of a lot of work. Specifically, its communications system is nearly completely ruined. So I doubt we're going anywhere in a hurry."

"So, in other words, you've killed this bunch of bad guys, but you have no idea what you're doing after that?"

"Well, no."

Sandra sat back in her cockpit, and thought it over. "Okay, how would you feel about a holiday?"

-----

A lone Rado sped away from Bad Post, heading north through the Wastelands and eventually towards the Vinterlands. Unlike the other Rados, it had been fitted with a pair of CP-09 booster cannons. They weren't a standard fit, but were easily adapted to fit the airframe.

The pilot was given a specific mission. He was to locate a particular army base in the Vinertlands and deliver a data disk to him. A disk that had been given to him by Major Lars Kandrak himself.


	17. Welcome to Stupidville

Beds Springs

The Wastelands

1700 Hours

"Welcome to Stupidville!" Vic cheerfully announced, her Gunsniper dancing around in a small circle.

"Ummm..." Sel replied. The eight Zoids were overlooking a town that squatted in the middle of a plain. Squatted was the appropriate word here. From up here, it looked like nothing more then a huge garbage tip, with a section of elevated train track running through it. Peering at the town closer, one could discern what could be roads (or at the very least, clearer patches in the rubble) and a few buildings that jutted up form the garbage around them.

"Pay no attention to her." Sandra said. "Guys, welcome to Bed Springs."

"Bed Springs?" Bob asked.

"Souds vaguely dirty" Alex muttered.

"It's a good place." Rick said. It's got character."

"It's a garbage dump." Bekka replied.

"It's a garbage dump with character." Rick countered.

"It's different." Sel finished. 'Its quite different to anything we've seen before, and certainly its like nowhere any of us have ever lived, even if for a holiday. And I, for one, like it."

"We might as well get moving." Sandra began. "I want to get down there, get home and buy anything we need before the whole place closes up for the night."

After recovering all the Zoids, as well as the survivors and bodies of Kandrak's unit, they'd flown from Bad Post to Bed Springs in the Whale King. Sel had decided to put the ship down a reasonable distance out of town, on Sandra's suggestion that a huge black ship looming over the town wasn't likely to go down too well. Strangely enough, they'd said nothing about Zoids walking through the town, so Sel had assumed that they were fine with just cruising into town.

As the procession of Zoids approached the town, she understood why they would be so casual about it. Unlike most other settlements in the Wastelands, Bed Springs lacked the usual defensive walls around the outside. What it had was extremities of town where the buildings, and the junk thinned out. The lack of defenses struck her, until she realised that this town had nothing anyone would want.

The rusted elevated rail was the most prominent feature of the town. In a way, it framed the rest. Various shabby looking buildings, accompanied by piles of junk. As they walked into the town, Sel looked around. She saw wrecked Zoid hulks, derelict weapons, junked construction equipment and, most notably, a lot of railway stock. All around the citizens of the town seemed to be more or less indifferent to the debris. They simply lived their lives around it.

And then there were the Zoids. A variety were seen around the town. A battered Redhorn stood outside a house. It turned and grunted at her as she passed, then went back to minding its own business. An elderly Bigasaur shambled past, an improvised crane attached to its back. A pair of Spinosappers pushed junk around, while various types of Gustav crawled through the junk, their trailers loaded up with various parts.

"What are they doing?" she asked, indicating to the Gustavs.

"Scavenging." Sandra replied. "It's the basis of the town's economy. Those guys in the Gustavs are paying to rummage through the scrap. They may come up with something, they may not."

"Who would go through junk like that?" She asked.

"Somebody who needs parts that they can't get off the shelf. Mercenaries who need spares in a hurry and don't have the cash to order. Underachieving looser Darths. Who knows?"

"Captain." Matt interrupted her. "It may be worth our time to send our Gustav to rummage through the scrapyard. It may be able to find the equipment we need to repair our ship, or at the very least, get the communications system back up."

"Good thinking." She replied. "I'll contact them tomorrow morning."

"And we're here!" Rick shouted.

The parade of Zoids abruptly stopped. Before them was a somewhat shabby looking two-story house, sitting in a yard full of patchy grass and weeds, underneath the overhead track. It was painted in a tan-brown colour which was faded and peeling. The corrugated iron roof was rusted in places. All its doors and windows appeared to be intact, which had to amount to something.

"What do you think?" Rick continued.

There was a round of resounding silences.

"Its... its a wreck." Bekka said.

"Yeah, but it's got great views." Alex replied.

"Very funny." Sandra replied. 'It's the best place in the neighborhood. I just wanted to show it to you all before we parked the Zoids."

-----

Parking the Zoids consisted of cramming them into a shabby hanger made out of corrugated iron slabs held together by rust patches. The only real benefit it offered, Sandra realised, was that the gantries gave Matt a way to get down from the Deadborder. Certainly it didn't cover protection from the elements. Still, it was better then leaving them lying around where they could be stolen.

"Hey, Sandra." Sel walked up to her as they walked back to the house. "I'm going to call our technicians tomorrow morning and get them to go over our Zoids. If you want, I can get them to look after yours as well."

"Anyone would think you were trying to buy me off." Sandra replied, a hint of anger in her voice. She'd spent the whole trip checking Sel's eyes, but they'd stayed her normal dark brown. Damn. She was hoping Sel would give something away.

"Look, I'm doing you a favour. You're putting up my men at your house for an indeterminate time period, so the least I can do is help you get your Zoids back into shape." She looked over them. Rick and Bekka had been talking almost non stop since they had gotten out of their Zoids. This could go badly, she thought.

"Yeah, I know." Sandra replied. "I guess I'm just paranoid." They stopped in front of the yard. "Hey everyone, welcome to our humble abode. Rick, the key if you would."

Rick stepped past her, unlocked the door and pushed it open. Nothing happened. Pushing it harder, it refused to budge. Shoulder-barging it yield nothing either. "Damn. This thing gets tougher every time."

"May I?" Bob asked.

"Go ahead." He shoved the door a few times, forcing it open. "Um, thanks." Rick replied.

They stepped in through the door. A battered hatrack stood by the door, holding an umbrella, an overcoat and an assortment of mis-matched hats. Inside beyond that was a lounge room, containing a collection of ratty couches and a home entertainment unit that looked suspiciously like it had been patched together form several different brands of equipment.

"I like the decor." Bekka said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"It's early wasteland crap" Rick replied. "Its a very in look this season."

"Cool." Alex said, stepping past. "Man, this stuff must have fallen off the back of only the best trucks."

Vic slinked past the lot of them. She'd been very quiet so far. Sandra eyed her warily. Something was wrong, she thought. Usually she should have put everyone off their dinner by now.

"Hey Sandra!" Rick shouted from the kitchen, distracting her from the matter at hand. Stepping past the milling masses of Sel's pilots she reached the wasteland, as she called it. The section that included the kitchen had been nailed onto the house at a later date after the house's construction. It never quite fit the house properly, and always had a slightly slipshod feel to her. Of course, the fact that it was thoroughly trashed when they got it hadn't helped.

"What's up?" She asked.

"Fridge." He replied. "Half jar of elderly mayo, stick of brown celery and a fossilised tomato."

"Tool." She said, then paused. "We always have only a half jar of elderly mayo, stick of brown celery and a fossilised tomato when we get back here."

"Funny that. We definitely need some food."

"Thanks for volunteering, Rick." She replied.

"Wha?" He stammered, then realised he'd been fooled. "Damn. You got me again."

"Sucker."

"Ah, nutbunnies." He walked out of the kitchen. "You know, I will get you one of these days."

"Whatever." She said and followed him. Sel's pilots were busy putting their gear down in the lounge room and trying to get settled. "Sorry to run off there." Sandra began. "We've had a slight delay with dinner, in so far as there is none. Rick's going to be looking after that for us.

Rick muttered something noncommittally.

"Where are we sleeping, by the way?" Matt asked.

"Good question." Sandra replied. "There's a spare bunk in my room for anyone who wants to take it. And there's a spare bunk in Vic's room I'm sure she'd be willing to share it with anyone who's interested." There was a long silence. She expected that. "Otherwise, feel free to dump your bags or whatever wherever you feel free. We've got plenty of couches and lots of floor space." One of the advantages of having no furniture, she thought.

"Hey, Bekka, you wanna come with me?" Rick asked as he walked out the door.

"Uh..." She looked around, probably deciding if hanging around with Rick was preferable to hanging around with everyone else. "Sure."

"Great. I'll get the trolley." The two of them walked out the front door.

Sandra looekd the rest of them over. Sel, Matt and Bob were all wearing dull grey uniforms with black trims, long jackets and thick pants. Alex was wearing a sleeveless vest, but still a military shirt. Only Bekka, in army pants and a sleeveless tank-top had looked normal, and even then her tattoos made her stand out. "One last thing, guys." She said. "I don't want to sound like I'm telling you how to live your lives, but you might want to dress a little less, uh, distinctively."

-----

Rick pushed the misshapen shopping trolley home. Or, more to the point, he struggled to keep it on course while it attempted to slide across the road in several directions at once and spill bags everywhere. Bekka walked next to him.

"Nice place you've got." She said. "Any reason why you live in a garbage dump?"

"Well, it's actually Sandra's place." Rick replied. "She lived here before she met the pair of us, and we moved in once we started working with her."

"So you like it?" She asked, clearly not sure what to make of the place.

Rick had to think about this for a moment. "Yeah, I do."

"Really?" She replied, not sure if she could believe him.

"Oh yeah." He said. "It's a strange thing, but it find that this place is great for my creativity." He looked around. "Y'see, my comic's meant to be a grim and gritty war story. I find that in a wasteland like this, its easy to get into the mood to create something that is, in its very nature, a rather dark piece. I mean, nothing says 'full horrors of war' more then a wasteland full of the end products of battle, to whit destroyed equipment."

Bekka said nothing for a while, not really sure of what to make of Rick's statement. So she improvised. "That's, um, deep."

"Yeah." He replied. "Say, I, uh noticed that today you had, uh..."

"Facepaint?" She said. "Yeah, it was, uh, it was my idea, really."

"Cool." Rick replied. "I liked it."

"You did?" She replied, sounding surprised. "Cool."

"Yeah. It goes well with your arms." He indicated to her bare, tattooed arms. "Gives you a sort of feral warrior look. I like it. I think I could work with that in the comic."

"Really?" She asked. "I mean, you'd use it?"

"Yeah. In fact, if you'll allow me to take a few liberties, I think I could work up a couple of designs for you." He grabbed the trolley and yanked it violently to the right. "You had the same pattern as Sel, and that's not so good for identification. I figure I could do a unique pattern for each of you."

"That'd be really, really cool." She continued.

"Yeah. Gimmie a while and I'll run off a few samples. I'll let you take a look at them and decide what you like."

"Great." She laughed. "I can have designer warpaint."

"And I can market it if the comic bombs." Rick continued. "You can be my model." The pair of them laughed at the idea.

"So what do you guys do around here for fun?" She asked. "Besides draw comic books?"

"We used to play three man, three team baseball." Rick said.

"How does that work?" Bekka asked.

-----

Sandra stood on the outside of the field, her red and white uniform covered in dirt, her cap settled low over her eyes. Vic was standing on the mound. grinning like an idiot while casually kicking the dirt. Rick stood at the bat, posing.

"At the bat, representing the Hellic Wolves, Rick R. Mortis." He announced. "In the field, representing the Zenebas Cubs, Sandra Blackmore. And on the mound, representing the Guylos Huge Scary Insane Dragony Wyverny Things-"

"Just get on with it, you big tool!" Sandra shouted.

-----

"Badly"

"Oh." She replied. "So what would happen if you had eight players?"

"I dunno. We could do something radical like eight man, two team baseball or something." Rick replied, and laughed.

"So you do anything else around here?"

He looked around, then grabbed the trolley to stop it from shooting off at a right angle to its current course. "Stuff. Garius tipping, the odd video game, scavenger hunts... Not much, really."

"No offence, but it sounds a little dull to me."

"Probably." He replied. "But then, you've got to remember that the three of us lead very fast-paced lives, action packed. We spend our time crawling across the desert going from one battle to another with relatively little respite. We're all civilians, and two of us are definitely not military to begin with."

"You're not?" She asked.

"Nah. I'm a comic book writer/artist by training. And Sandra used to be a police officer."

"Really?" She replied, not sure if she believed him.

"Yep." Rick replied. "The running around in a Zoid bit came later."

"And what about Vic? Does she have military training?"

Rick paused. "I've never been brave enough to ask." Then the trolley decided to savagely attack his ankle.

-----

Dinner had gone off rather well. Rick had broken out the backyard barbecue, chased the spiders off it and managed to get it in a semblance of a working state. The resulting sausages and onions were considered to be quite tasty, especially after drowned in sauce to get some of the burnt flavor out. Sandra said it was the best barbecue they'd had in ages, as she didn't have to use the fire extinguisher. Sel had been about to ask what she meant, but then she spotted the burnt patches of grass, she decided against it. Vic had attended, but had sulked in the back and not even said a single off-putting thing.

Dinner had been followed by a round of sitting around in deckchairs, drinking and swapping war stories, with everyone eventually retreating inside when it had gotten too cold and too dark to see the cans. Rick had deiced to introduce everyone to the joys of his games console, which had immediately grabbed Bekka's attention. Sandra and Sel had quietly slipped aside, and were now standing on the balcony, overlooking the back yard.

"I can guess why you bought me out here." Sel began. "Quite frankly, I don't blame you after my little performance earlier today."

"So care to explain?" Sandra asked. "I can live with you going nuts. Heck, I live with a nut. It's when your eyes glow bright green that I get worried. That's far from normal."

She shrugged. "I, that is to say, we all use a sophisticated neural control system on our Zoids. Rather then your neurohelmets that allow you a limited degree of communication between the pilot and Zoid, this system, in essence, plugs the pilot's mind directly into the Zoid's mind."

"And this involves sticking stuff into your head?" Sandra replied. "There had better be some benefits for this."

Sel nodded. "It involves the installation of a cybernetic interface inside the pilot's head. There are benefits, however. Our Zoids react faster to our commands then through a neurohelmet and conventional controls. Additionally, it allows the Zoid to feed sensory data directly to the pilot."

"And there's a catch, right?"

"It's difficult to describe, but sometimes the system can cause the pilot to, well, go berserk, I guess." She explained. "If the pilot is feeling particularly emotional, usually angry or upset, the Zoid's own emotions can end up feeding through the system and, well, they pilots can go berserk. They tend to attack whatever it is that the pilot was focusing on, usually the cause of their problems."

"So, in short, you freak out and decide to smash whatever it is that's getting in your way." Sandra summarised.

"Pretty much." Sel admitted.

"I'm guessing this doesn't happen too often." Sandra continued.

"No, it is rather infrequent." Sel replied. "It's the first time its ever happened to me. Fortunately, for the most part, you can snap the pilot out of it by trying to reason with them. Either that or a sharp blow to the head."

"So it's not that dangerous?"

Sel had to stop and think. "Not unless you have a very willful or aggressive Zoid, and a very unstable or violent pilot."

"Fairy nuff." Sandra said. "Okay, number two. Who was the old tool in the Gordox, and what was he to you?"

Sel leant back on the wall. "His name was Lars Kandrak. He was a major in the Imperial army some fifty years ago. He was a part of a coup attempt, lead by a Colonel called Magnus Chrom. The coup failed, and the remnants of Chrom's regiment fled. They thought they had a safe haven, only instead they found us."

"Us?"

"I'm going to get to that." Sel replied. "We took them in. They were the first contact we'd had with the outside world... in a long time." Sandra noted the pause. "Unfortunately, Chrom was good at hiding his intentions. He staged a second, bloody coup, attempting to take us over. It failed, thanks to some clever planning by a few military commanders."

"So what happened then?"

"Chrom took his unit, and attempted to flee. To buy him and his fellow officers time, he ordered Major Kandrak to attack our population and draw off our forces. His plan was a partial success. He'd underestimated our own readiness. Chrom, his aide, Adrian Quentin and his second in command, Major Gates McShann, were killed, along with the majority of his troops. Ironically, Kandrak, his distraction, escaped with the survivors."

"So you were hunting a war criminal." Sandra concluded.

"The worst one in our history." She finished.

"Fine. I can understand why you wanted him so badly." Sandra replied. "So here's the big one. Where the frelling hell are you from anyway?"

"I figured it'd come to that." Sel said. "I hope you realize that I'm really, really putting myself out here. However, i do think you deserve something of an explanation." She walked over to look over the yard. "In the Dark Continent, there's a hidden city."

"A city?" Sandra asked. This was a surprise.

"A lost colony, if you want." Sel replied. "The city is concealed, hidden underground. It was founded a century ago. We were refugees, fleeing from conflict. The city was our shelter from the wars that had nearly killed us all."

"And you hid yourselves away there for fifty years before anyone found you."

"Chrom knew where we were. We never knew how." She continued. "When Kandrak escaped, he had a complete record of everything that happened. He alone knew where to find us."

"So he was a notorious war criminal and a threat to national security to boot." Sandra finished. "No wonder you wigged out at him."

Sel looked out over the town. "I understand why you wanted to know what happened and who we were." She replied. "I'm trusting you to not breathe a word of this to anyone."

"Sure." Sandra replied. "You trusted me enough to tell me this, so I'm going to repay that trust." She put a hand on Sel's shoulder. "Besides, I'd like to think of you and your people as friends. We've saved each other's lives once each, so I think we're beyond the casual acquaintance phase."

Sel turned around, and smiled. "Thanks for that, Sandra. Being where I am, its hard to come across an actual friend."

"It's not a problem. Besides, who can claim they know someone form a lost city in the Dark Continent?" The pair of them laughed. "Come on, let's get inside before someone burns the house down."

The two of them went back inside. Neither of them noticed Vic, who had been sitting on the roof above them, disassembling and cleaning a rifle, listening intently all along.

-----

Kingswood Army Base

The Vinterlands

Even though it was well after dark, John Shepherd knew where Colonel Pie would be. Standing outside his office, he glanced at the man next to me. He was a dirty and disheveled individual, wearing an older-model Zoid flightsuit that had clearly passed through several different owners. He held a single data disk in his hand. John recognised it as being an older design of disk. it was rarely used, but still perfectly compatible with modern systems.

He'd arrived at the base a few minutes ago in a Rado that had been modified with a pair of boosters. John was surprised that he'd managed to evade their air defenses and remain undetected until he landed. Clearly this pilot was skilled, if unwashed. He'd immediately demanded to see Colonel Pie. John would have had him arrested on the spot, but then the pilot had claimed that he was sent by a Major Lars Kandrak. That had grabbed his attention.

He knocked on the Colonel's door. After a moment, there was a reply. "Enter." He opened the door, and stepped in, the pilot behind him. Pie was standing with his back to the door, looking out over the night time base. Outside, he could see the Rado, now guarded by a pair of Strike Zillas. "So, what do you have for me?"

"This is Lieutenant Mark Zell. He claims to be a member of Major Lars Kandrak's Red Gorgon battalion. He says he has come here on the orders of Major Kandrak himself to deliver something to you."

Pie turned around, grinning. It was the sort of grin that made John have serious doubts about the man's sanity. Still, Pie was his commanding officer, and he had been very good to John. "Excellent work, both of you!" He exclaimed. "So, Mark was it? Let's see what you have."

Mark handed him the disk. "This is a copy of the journal of Captain Adrian Quentin." He stated. "Major Kandrak said it had all the information you would need to find what you were after."

Pie picked it up and looked at it. "All that I wanted, eh?" He turned it around a few times. "Well done, Lieutenant. You are a credit to your unit."

"Yes sir." He replied. Something in that reply told John that he didn't exactly have a unit. At least, not any more.

"Good man." He grinned. "Major Shepherd, recall all patrols. Have the technicians prepare the Whale King to move out. Order all troops to standby for immediate deployment. And have my personal Zoid made ready."

"Yes sir!" He saluted. "What do you want me to do with the lieutenant, sir?"

"Give him a good bath and put him up in our VIP quarters." The colonel replied. "He's done us a great service. A great service indeed."

"Yes sir." John saluted again and turned to leave, before Pie spoke again.

"Oh and Major?" He began. "Contact Captain Desmond. Tell him he is go to recruit that woman for his operation."

-----

D'Avella Industrial Complex

Chronos

Sheltering behind a derelict factory, Rick furtively checked the status of his Gojulas Giga's systems. His armour was somewhat depleted from his previous engagements with the enemy, but it was still more then enough to protect him. All the systems showed as green, and most importantly the two Buster Cannons on the back both registered as fully functional and ready to go.

A quick scan of the radar showed that his enemy was lurking nearby. Right, he thought. Only one good way to this. The good old fashioned bum steer. Switching to the pursuit mode, he dropped down and got ready to move out. "Okay" He said to himself. "Three, two one. Let's go."

The massive Zoid charged around the corner, breaking into a run in the main street through the main street of the complex. Unfortunately, Rick realised too late, his enemy wasn't in front of him, but above. "Crap." He looked up. The winged serpentine form of a Gungyarados loomed over him, its charged particle cannon glowing ominously. "Crap on a crap cracker."

"BURNINATE!" The female pilot yelled as the cannon fired. The world around Rick went white, as the Giga Gojulas was torn apart.

"I win again!" Bekka shouted, leaping up from the couch and dancing around the room. "Yeeee-haw!"

"She's way too good at this." Bob muttered.

"And such a gracious winner too" Alex added.

"You two are just bitter 'cause i beat the pair of you silly" She replied.

"No need to rub it in." Rick muttered. "Six consecutive losses."

"Aw, c'mon. It was fun." She replied, grinning. "And its not like you've exactly been loosing yourself. You beat Matt, and he was using a Deadborder."

"I admit it, he beat me." Matt said, putting his hands up. "I concede that I do indeed suck at these games."

"But I lost in a Command Woof. I'm good with Command Woofs." It had been very disenhartening to see his blue Command Wolf AC getting chewed on by a black and green Heldigunner.

"Aw come on, it's all fun." Bekka replied. "Hey, can I see your studio?" She added, suddenly changing the topic.

"Wha?" He asked, momentarily thrown.

"You said you were gonna do some designs for my facepaint. I was hoping I could see you at work."

"Well, it's rather late." he replied. "I do most of my work when I'm fresh, during the day."

"At least let me see it." She replied, then leant closer and quietly added. "I can show you that tattoo I mentioned. Just so you have a complete character design for me."

Rick almost fell off his seat. "Uh, sure." He added. "Might as well." He got up. "Uh, its upstairs. My studio also functions as my, uh, bedroom"

"Lead the way." She replied.

The two of them headed upstairs. After a minute, Bob turned to Alex. "Shouldn't we do something? She's frat-"

Alex cut him off. "Let it go, man. Let it go." He handed him a controller. "Another game?"

-----

A lone figure watched the house through a set of low-light binoculars from a vantage point on a nearby roof. There they were, he thought. The one he was after had to be there. He watched the figures moving around inside through the windows. There were several downstairs, and a couple in one of the upstairs room. Perfect. Soon he'd have his revenge.

He looked up. There was a woman sitting on the roof, cleaning what looked like a rifle. She stopped, then pointed it straight at him, peering down the scope. She mouthed a singe word. He threw himself to the ground, the binoculars flying off into the distance.

Damn. He thought. This was going to be harder then he'd planned, even for one of his abilities.

-----


	18. Black Zoid, Silver Man

Bed Springs

The Wastelands

1100 Hours

The next morning had gone better then Sandra had expected. Everyone was awake and upright (to a degree) and nobody seemed to have suffered any permanent injuries from sleeping on the floor. Sel had taken up her offer of sharing the bunk bed, and had as a result slept better then the others. Bekka had slept in Rick's room, although Sandra had idly wondered exactly how much sleep they'd gotten. Nobody had gone with spending the night in Vic's room. No surprises there.

Sel had spent some time talking to the technicians on the Dark Star. In return, they'd dispatched a crew to begin repairs on the Zoids, and another crew to collect parts to repair the ship with. Sandra had seen what she later described as the "freakiest damn Gustav ever" drop them off. It had a black shell, silver body and a one-way bright green cockpit.

"Dark Gustav. Scary." Vic had snuck up next to her on the balcony.

"When did you get here?"

"I was always here." She replied.

"If you're interested, we're playing Baseball today. We're going for a radical approach, two teams of four to a team." She said. "But, if you'd prefer to stay in your room and be an antisocial tool, feel free."

The smaller woman shrugged. "Baseball's good." She turned around and walked back inside.

"Weird." Sandra muttered as she watched a Red Scavenger, already carrying a junked Zoid on its back, join the other Gustavs.

She'd asked Sel about it, and was strangely surprised to find that she knew about baseball, and had actually played in her youth. Sandra had explained that it was traditional for them to play baseball on their first day of the holidays. (What she hadn't explained was that it really meant "We drink a lot of beer and occasionally throw a ball at each other") Sel rather liked the idea, and had run it by her squad (except for Bekka who was either still asleep or otherwise occupied) and they'd all seemed to like the idea.

So, a half hour or so later, the eight of them were standing around in the small baseball diamond that had been hacked out of the mass of weeds that was the back garden. Rick, Vic and Sandra were dressed in their "official" baseball uniforms (Rick had them made by a friend of a friend of his) while the others were wearing a variety of spare clothes that the three of them had scrounged up. Only Bekka looked comfortable, wearing one of Vic's shirts that was clearly too small for her and her uniform pants. The others looked a little, well, out of place.

Sandra and Sel had been arbitrarily assigned to the positions of team leaders. Sandra had one the toss and elected to pick first, and had put Bob on her team (Figuring him to have a pretty good throwing arm. The way he was built, he had to). Sel had, in return, picked Vic for some reason best known only to her. Or maybe Rick had been telling her about their previous games, Sandra thought ruefully. She'd ended up with Alex and Bekka on her team, while Sel had gotten Matt and Rick, he latter of whom looked like he was half-asleep still.

-----

Bob stood on the mound, staring down the batter. In return, Vic stared back at him, glaring at him with her weird greeny-yellow eyes. Bob didn't flinch. Rick was blinking for him. It took a lot to stare straight at Vic and not flinch.

The last couple of innings had gone like this. Bob was proving to be lethal. He had an excellent arm for throwing and for batting. When throwing, he hurtled balls with a distressing amount of speed, force and accuracy. When batting, he was great at sending them out of the field. This made him the archenemy of Vic. While she didn't have the strength of his throws or hits, she had an unerring aim.

There was a loud crack as Vic hit the ball. It sailed out straight past the first base, Bekka ducking to avoid getting her head taken off. Vic ran, as did the other three members of her team who had the other bases loaded. Rick could only grin as Sandra and Bekka hunted around for the ball, while Alex had to watch the players sprint past him.

Sandra signaled "end of innings, time for beer." Rick casually strolled off to one of the benches, collapsing next to Bekka who looked like she was exhausted. "I don't know what it's like chasing after Bob's hits, but those ones of Vic's are lethal." She said, stating up at the porch roof.

"Pretty much the same. Bob doesn't hit them at you as much as he just sends them further. He got us good with the one that ended up stuck in the bridge structure." He pointed up to the section of rusted elevated rail above them.

"Say, this is probably going to sound stupid, but what is that thing doing there?" She asked. "I mean, a section of elevated maglev rail in the middle of a wasteland town like this?"

"That?" He replied. "Yeah, well... a few decades back, when the UZN was formed, someone had the bright idea of creating a rail link between them and the Empire. The project collapsed due to political realities or something, but not before the construction had started here. So there ya go."

"That makes sense." She replied. "So what's the score?"

"Uh, Q to twelve."

"Who's winning?"

"No idea." He sighed. "This whole eight players and two teams thing is rather radical for us. Might take some getting used to."

"Right." She shrugged. "I don't suppose you've ever played normal baseball, right?"

"Probably. But it was a long time ago."

"Oi! You two!" Sandra shouted. "Get moving. It's a new innings."

"Right." Rick replied. "Come on. It's my turn to be a target."

The players took their places on the field. For various reasons, Rick ended up being picked as the first bat on his team. He found himself standing on the plate, staring at Vic. He'd been here before, but had never grown used to it. Staring into her eyes, he wondered what it would be like if he was facing her in real combat. Brief was the best answer he could thing of.

Before she could maim anyone, a shadow fell across the field. As one, they turned to the source. A black and grey Zoid stood over the field. It was like nothing any of them had ever seen before. A pair of red insect-like pincers extended from the front of the head section, giving it a monstrous appearance. Two cannons on the head, a pair of cannons on the back and another pair at the waist jutted from its body, leaving no illusions to its function. A pair of four-clawed crushing hands was complimented by extendable rotating saw-blades, two side-mounted blades, elbow spikes, knee spikes and a massive spiked club on the end of the tail.

It appearance was intimidating. It would have been more so if it wasn't clearly a Godos with extensive remodeling.

As one, they stopped to stare at it. All speechless, save for Vic. "Ooooooh." She said. "Horrible burning death to us all, I think."

"At last, I've found you!" A voice from the cockpit stated, amplified by the Zoid's external speakers. "At last I shall have my revenge on you."

"Um, forgive my impudence in asking this." Sandra said. "But who are you and what do you want with us?"

"SILENCE!" The Zoid pilot roared. "You are irrelevant to me. The one I seek is him!" It pointed at Rick, who was standing on the plate, staring up at him.

"Me?" He asked.

"Looks like you're in for a dreaded deading this week." Vic said to him. "Good luck."

"Yes, you, Rick R. Mortis!" It shouted. "I have returned to make you pay for what you did to me all those years ago!"

"Um, that's nice." Rick replied. "One question; who the hell are you?"

"I didn't expect you to recognize me like this." It replied. "Very well. I will allow you to gaze upon the face of your destroyer."

The cockpit opened, ands a man stepped out. He was a tall, slim man, with a long, narrow face with very pale skin, as well as deep, black eyes and long, black hair. He was wearing a set of long, flowing black robes, with the traditional hood thrown back to reveal his features.

"A Darth!" Rick shouted. "Who are you?"

"The name you used to know me by is no longer important. Now, I am known as Darth Pants!"

There was a long pause. Finally, Rick spoke. "I'm sorry. I have absolutely no idea who you are." He looked at Sandra, who merely shrugged as if to say "You've got me."

The man seemed to stagger and almost collapsed back into his cockpit. After a moment, he regained his composure. "Don't you remember me, Rick?" He shouted. "Or have you just forgotten so you won't shame yourself in front of your so called friends?"

Rick shook his head.

"FINE!" The Darth shouted. "Maybe this will jog your memory. Surely you must remember Christine Sanders?"

Rick had to think for a moment, before replying. "Uh, yeah. What's she got to do with this?"

"You stole her away from me!" Pants shouted back. "If not for you, she'd still be alive today!"

Rick screwed up his eyes in concentration. "Um... ummm... ummm... Hey! You weren't that funny looking pale kind who nobody liked who kept on talking about mixing Godos and Iguan parts, were you?"

"Yes! That was I, Darth Pants! And that Iguan-Godos hybrid would eventually become this, my latest greatest creation ever, the Black Zoid!" He laughed maniacally.

Sandra walked up to him. "Okay, Rick. What's all this about?"

"Christine was a girl I went out with a couple of times when I was in high school. She ended up dropping out of school and joining the army." Rick replied. "I heard that she was killed in action a couple of years ago, but that's about it."

"So... it's got nothing to do with you?" She asked.

"Well, I suppose he could be upset that she never went out with him, but that's it." Rick replied. "If anything I encouraged her to stay in school and continue her studies. I certainly didn't kill her or anything."

"Right. Better explain that to him then."

Rick picked up his bat and walked towards the Black Zoid. "Look, sorry mate. I can't say that I know you at all. And while I am sorry about Christine's death, it really had nothing to do with me."

"Don't you play innocent with me!" he shouted back. "You can't hide from responsibility forever! Face me now, or else I will follow you to the ends of the world to extract my vengeance from you!"

"Well, I guess if it will make you happy, we can fight." Rick replied. "I'm busy right now, and I need to get Woof ready to go, so how about, say, three PM at the arena of sport over on the other side of town?"

"Well... yeah, I guess..." The Darth trailed off.

"Cool. I guess I'll see you then!" Rick turned around.

"Right well..." Pants seemed to be at a loss for words. "Yeah. I will... have my vengeance... on you then. And... yeah. Vengeance." He climbed back into the Black Zoid's cockpit, which turned and departed.

Sel ran up to him. "That was a brave thing you just did, Rick." She said. "My Darkhorn should be ready. I can take him out now if you wish."

"Naw, it's cool." He replied. "Besides, that'd just add you to the 'people to whack like a goomba' list. No, I think I'll have to take this guy on one-on-one."

"Then if you wish, I can lend it to you for the fight."

Rick shrugged. "Naw, I'll use woof for this. Besides, I'd probably be crap in a Darkhorn anyway." He walked off the plate. "Now if you'll excuse me, guys, I've got to get ready for a fight."

-----

Rick sat in the lounge room, doing up his boots. He hadn't had the chance to wash his pilot suit before the battle (last he saw, it was lying in a filthy heap in the bottom of the laundry with all the other stuff they were going to wash "tomorrow" so he'd opted to fight in his baseball uniform. Besides, he figured, if it didn't take to long to beat this Darth, he could go back to the game.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" The voice came from behind him. He leaned back, to see Bekka standing over him. The view from here was good, he thought. Man that shirt was way too small for her.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Rick replied.

"Why don't you just blow him off?" She asked. "You said that what happened was nothing to do with you, so why bother?"

"Simple." He replied. "If I turn him down now, he'll just come back and throw down the gauntlet again. If I refuse, he'll keep on coming back. Eventually, he'll get so angry that he'll threaten to blow up the world or kill my girlfriend unless I fight him."

"You sure about that?" She looked doubtful.

"'course I am." Rick finished. 'Its how it works in the comics."

"Right." She didn't look convinced.

"Hey Rick!" Sandra walked through, holding a beer. "I went down to the Arena of Sport. Nobody was in, so I left a note on the wall to book us in for three. Unless some tool complains, we're set."

"Cool. Thanks Sandra."

"Ah, it's not a prob." She replied. "Besides, that flute-head ruined our game just as my team was winning. I'm trusting you to whack thim around the head like the tool he is."

"I will, trust me." Rick replied. "I'm not planning on loosing this."

Sel walked in, closing her communicator up. (She'd insisted on keeping it, despite Sandra saying she was on holiday and thus should be away from it.) "I just got off the line to the techs. I've got them to fast track repairs and concentrate on your Wolf. It should be back up by fourteen-thirty hours. Unfortunately they won't have the time to get it repainted, so you'll still have some panels in factory-primer colours."

"It's cool." Rick replied. "Just so long as Woof's alright."

"They say the damage wasn't as bad as it looked." She replied. "Either you or that dog are really, really lucky."

"You got that right." Sandra said form the kitchen. "I don't think I've ever seen you get hurt, even when Vic is pitching."

"I don't try hard enough" She said as she casually walked past.

"You coming or are you going to sit in your room all day and sulk?" Sandra asked.

Vic casually stopped by the stairs. "Its not every day that legends come to life." She replied. "And it can't hurt to watch, can it?"

-----

The Arena of Sport had started out as a bare patch of dirt in the middle of the junk that had been large enough for a pair of Zoids to run around on and fight each other. A few mercenaries passing through had used it as a place to resolve the odd violent dispute, friendly rivalry or just get in a bit of extra combat practice.

Some enterprising individuals had gotten word of this, and decided to make some money off it. They'd figured that staged Zoid fights would be a sure-fire money maker. So they'd moved in and built a stadium around the bare patch of ground. While large, it was rather modest (Being mainly made of bare concrete and steel) but it was functional enough. Unfortunately for them, the expected business had filed to materialise. Bed Springs was too small, too out of the way and simply not a nice place to visit. So they'd gone bankrupt and left the town with the arena.

Since then it had been used for the occasional fight. Apart form some new decor (a Stealth Viper head mounted over one of the gates) and plenty of holes, the arena hadn't changed since then. A few piles of debris were scattered around the arena floor, obstinately to add some terrain to the fights but mainly because nobody could be bothered cleaning up. Nobody ran it as such, and people were free to come and go as they wished. The few fights occasionally drew a small crowd, and today was no exception.

Sandra sat on a bench near the front row at the mid-way point of the Arena's length, the others with her. Vic was studying the few other members of the crowd intently through a pair of binoculars. Bekka was sitting next to her. "Aren't you worried about them?" She asked.

"Not really." Sandra replied. "I'm sure he can handle this tool on his own."

"But he's a Darth!" Bekka all but shouted. "You can't tell what his Zoid is going to do."

"You can often guess form looking at it" Sandra replied. "From here, I'd say it's a Godos. No matter how much junk he shovels on to it, it's still a Godos. Rick's Woof is faster and more agile, and carries a pair of big guns. And I'm willing to bet all the extra crap he's carrying on that Godos isn't going to do its performance any good."

"You think?"

"Yeah." Sandra replied. "Pants-boy there doesn't strike me as the sort of twisted genius that most Darths are. He strikes me as more of the 'idiot' type." A gate opened at the far end of the arena. The oddly shaped figure of the Black Zoid emerged from the entranceway, slowly stepping into the arena. It flexed its claws, swished around the spiked tail, and experimentally spun the saw blades. "See?" Sandra said. "Half of those weapons are so badly placed that he can't use them, like the buzzsaws. That thing's a stumbling junkheap, not a Darthed Monster."

-----

The gates to the arena opened. Rick slowly walked the Command Wolf out into the arena, covering his eyes to shield him form the glare of the sunlight. Momentarily, it cleared, revealing the vast expanse of the arena before him. At the far end, the Black Zoid loomed by the other gate. A beep on his comms panel advised of an incoming transmission. "I guess it's time for the traditional pre-game taunts" he said to himself, and hit the comms button.

It was Darth Pants, glowering into the screen. "I just want you to know this before you die, Rick. Last time we fought, I didn't know it was you. Then, I was being paid to kill you. However, had I known it was you, I'd have happily done it for free."

"We've fought before?" Rick asked.

"Surely you remember the Munkytruk, my last ultimate creation?" He replied. "Or did its sheer speed and power shock you so much that you are unable to recall."

"Um, whenabouts was this?" He asked.

"Nearly two weeks ago. You and your two colleges were en route to Rusty Springs. I ambushed you with my Munkytruk."

"Ummm...'' Rick concentrated. He vaguely remembered a blurr of wheels and arms flying past him with its arse on fire before vanishing off into the distance. Only Vic had seen it clearly, which lead him to believe that it had been a figment of his imagination. "Nope. Don't remember it at all."

"That was me, you fool!" He shouted.

"Sorry." Rick said. "Maybe you were mistaken."

Pants looked ready to explode. "Damn you! Damn you and your damn Wolf! Just die!" He charged forwards, firing his mess of assorted weapons at the Command Wolf. Rick leapt to the right, most of the shots going wide and tearing up the arena floor.

The Command Wolf broke into a run, firing its cannons. A pile of scrap absorbed the first shot, the second winging the Black Zoid. In return, it turned clumsily, trying to follow him, still firing. A shot went wide, while another one nicked armour of the Command Wollf's flank. "Well, if you're going to fight like that..." Rick said, and smiled. He flicked over another switch in the cockpit. The four pipes mounted on the Wolf's rear section began belching black smoke, leaving a trail behind it as it ran. The then abruptly broke left, charging past the black Zoid, leaving more smoke in its wake. The Black Zoid turned to fire at him again, its slow reactions compared to the Wolf's speed resulting in most of the shots going wide.

-----

"What's he doing?" Bekka asked.

"I'm not sure..." Sandra replied. The view of the arena had become suddenly obscured by the black smoke from the Wolf, making it difficult to see what was going on. "Hmmm..." She studied Rick's erratic movements. "From head on at this range, the Black Zoid may actually be more powerful. However, all its weapons are fixed forwards, while Rick's are turreted..."

"It can't turn very well." Sel, who was sitting next to her noted. "Rick leaps, it sort of slowly shuffles."

"So he's outrunning and confusing it." Sandra finished. "Interesting. Not what I'd normally expect out of our boy."

-----

Pants fired into a cloud of smoke. That stupid Command Wolf had to be around here somewhere, he thought. It can't hide forever. Nothing. "Damn you!" He shouted. "Come on out and fight like a real man!"

"Well if you insist!" Rick replied.

"Wha?" He said as he slowly turned the Black Zoid.

Suddenly, the Command Wolf leapt out of the smoke, coming form his side. Rather then attacking, however, it crashed down, forepaws first, on the Black Zoid's left side, before leaping off again. The whole Zoid shook, and then tipped over sideways. He desperately tried to right it, but realised it was a losing battle. The Black Zoid tipped and fell, then stopped abruptly before hitting the ground.

"What?" He asked himself. He cautiously opened the canopy and peered out. Of curse! The hip-mounted blade on the side of the Black Zoid had dug into the ground and was propping him up. He was fine! Laughing to himself, he climbed back into the command seat. Rick had thought that he was beaten. Well he'd be up in a second and show him! He ordered the Black Zoid to push down on the ground and prop him back up.

Nothing happened.

"What?" He looked at the controls. Maybe something was damaged. Checking the status meters, everything came up as green save for the few components he knew were damaged before. Certainly nothing was damaged that would stop him from getting up. So what was happening? He opened the canopy and looked out again. The arm was dangling down, just unable to reach the ground. The blade on the hip was longer then the arm could reach down. He had been foiled by his own genius. The irony, he thought.

"Care to give up now?" A voice said over the loudspeaker. In front of him, the smoke cleared to reveal Rick's Command Wolf, standing above his Zoid. From here, he couldn't hit him with any of the weapons. Curses.

"Bah." He replied. "Go on. You may have won this day, Rick, but I will be back. You haven't heard the last of me. One way or another, I will have my revenge for what you did to me."

"Sure. Whatever." Rick replied. "Until the next time, then." The Command Wolf turned around and walked off.

"One thing." He said. "How did you beat me?"

"Oh you don't know?" Rick replied. "I'm the undisputed World's Champion at Garius Tipping."

"I see." He sat there in silence for a minute. "One more last thing, Rick." He said over the communicator. "Could you help me get up?"

-----


	19. Head Trauma

Bed Springs

The Wastelands

1800 Hours

Sel had asked Alice to come down from the Dark Star to help her with a very specific project. The two of them had spent over an hour breaking into the town's central transmitter that was used to keep it in touch with the outside world. In the end, it wasn't that difficult; the Transmitter was unguarded and the security measures consisted of a single rusted chain-link fence that they had simply clipped open. Once in, they'd spliced a comms cable into the transmitter; the other end ran a few hundred meters away and was connected into Sel's Darkhorn, which was parked nearby. Alice had then spent some time messing with the controls of the comms array, aligning one of the dishes at a specific target.

She ran back to the Darkhorn, where Sel was sitting in the rear command/observation cockpit. "Okay, Captain, we're ready to go!" She shouted. "We've got one way, and I figure we're only getting a single shot before someone finds us and tries to take us off the air."

"Thanks, Alice." Sel replied. She switched the communicator on, and began speaking.

"This is Captain Sel Magyari of the Blackstar expeditionary force reporting. A week ago, our Whale King was badly damaged in an attack. We have lost our long range communications system and suffered severe damage to our weapons systems and engines. Two crew members were killed in the attack."

"Despite the damage done to the ship, we proceeded with the assignment given to us. Two days ago, my unit located and engaged Major Lars Kandrak's battalion. We were inadvertently aided by a local mercenary unit who, coincidentally, were contracted to eliminate the unit. After a brief skirmish, we defeated the enemy with no losses to our forces. We have since ascertained that the mercenaries pose no security risk."

"Of the fifteen men of Kandrak's battalion, five were killed, including Major Kandrak himself. The other ten were captured and are being held on board the Dark Star for questioning and eventual incarceration. Major Kandrak died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, rather then face capture. An autopsy of him reveled that he was suffering form a rare form of cancer, and had at best six months to live."

Some very sobering information had come out of what they had recovered from Kandrak's men. "It is my belief that Kandrak was intending to return to the Dark Continent in some sort of suicidal 'death or glory' attack on us, rather then die quietly of illness. This theory is supported by the amount of mining equipment he'd stolen all of which could be adapted to fit the Zoids used by his unit."

"For the moment, my unit is concentrating on repairing the ship. We are presently trying to acquire replacement parts for the communications array. I will attempt to contact you again within the week to update our status. Magyari out."

She closed the connection. Alice gave her a big "Thumbs up" to indicate that the message had been sent.

"Good work. Now let's get out of here before someone finds out what happened."

-----

After the fight, they'd made a half-arsed attempt to get back to the baseball game. Everyone being distracted from the fight and talking about it had made concentrating on the game hard, and Sel suddenly running off hadn't helped matters at all. In the end, it was declared a no contest. Sel's team, in her absence had reached 2x/(z1), and Sandra's were all out for 143, with Alex bowled for a duck. After that, everyone had decided that it was a good idea to retire for more beers.

As it was a remotely festive occasion (Rick beating his newly-discovered arch-enemy) and they had pretty much drunk the house dry, they collectively opted to move to a local bar. Sandra had found what she called the best bar in the town. She then translated it to mean "the least worst" and added that it had the lowest population of Proto-Saicurtis of the entire town's various drinking spots. Like the rest of the town, this nameless watering hole was run down and battered. The battered furniture, faded decor and spotty lighting suggested that the place, like everything else in the town, had seen better days. Not that anyone seemed to mind. Although it could have just been the booze speaking.

"Here's to Rick, the slayer of Darths!" Beka shouted, before throwing back another beer.

"I only beat one." Rick replied. "And even then I didn't slay him. I only knocked him over."

"OK, how about Rick the topper-over of one Darth, maybe?" Alex said.

"A bit impractical." Rick said. "Still, I can work on it."

"Heh, uh... what happened to him anyway?" Bekka asked.

"A Red Scavenger turned up to collect it." Bob answered. "Last I saw it, it had crawled off into the distance, dragging the Zoid along with it."

"What I want to know is what kind of a Darth builds an ultimate weapon out of a Godos?" Matt asked.

"A moron." Sandra replied.

"Probably. I'm no Darth, but I can think of better platforms for an 'ultimate weapon' myself." Matt said.

"I think even Bob could." Bekka said, indicating at him with her thumb. Bob decided not to rise to it for the moment.

"They're being impudent." Vic said to him as she walked past. "Kill them all."

"Um..." Bob asked, and turned to Sandra. "Is she always like that?"

"Yes. No. Sort of." Sandra replied. "Vic's been acting weird of late. Well, weird for her."

"Right." Bob said. "I need another beer."

"A very, very good plan." Sandra finished. "Someone get us another two over here!"

"Whatever!" Rick shouted back.

Sel walked in, another woman behind her. She was shorter, and of a lighter build, with long black hair tided into a pair of long braids, and wore a rather plain grey jumpsuit. "Sorry to take so long." Sel began. "I had some official business to attend to; filing reports, looking after the ship and all that."

"'scool." Sandra replied. "Who's the friend?"

"Alice McNeil" The woman said, extending her hand. "I'm a comms tech from the ship."

"Sandra Blackmore." he replied, shaking her hand. "So what brings you to this lovely location?"

"I was passing some information along to the captain. Updates to the ships status, the usual." She replied. "Sel invited me around for a drink."

"I figured it was okay with you." Sel replied.

"It's all good." Rick said, butting in. "The more the merrier."

"Sorry for running out on the game like that." Sel apologized to Sandra. "Duty called."

"Not a prob. We won anyway."

"I figured that much." Sel smiled. "I did leave them minus a player and a captain. Final score?"

"I don't think it exists inside the realm of rational numbers." Sandra answered.

"Right." She looked confused. "One question, Sandra."

"Yeah?"

"How do you keep score in three-man, three-team baseball?"

Sandra had to think about it for a minute. "Badly"

-----

Having just ordered her first actual drink for the night (While everyone else was very liquored up), Vic leaned back against the bar to stare up at the ceiling. Her train of lack of thought, however, was interrupted by somebody walking up next to her, and leaning on the bar. He was tall and solidly built, with short, black hair and an handsome face. He wore anonymous, generic-looking black clothes, and sunglasses, despite it being indoors and at night. She was on the verge of ignoring him, when he spoke.

"Victoria Hagen?"

She turned towards him, eyeing him warily. He was still standing there, now with a glass on the bar in front of him, but was now looking at her. "And?" She replied.

"Private Victoria Hagen, Vinterlands armed forces. SN 06120312/7070. Primary specialty Zoid pilot, secondary specialty marksman." He casually recited the details. "Two years ago, you went absent without leave form the army under very questionable circumstances." he smiled. "At present, you are wanted for desertion throughout the Vinterlands."

She smiled a bit. "Oh. Point?"

"I have a little proposition for you. I can clear up your record for you, as well as give you a substantial cash leg-up to whatever you choose to do with the rest of your life. You'd have a clean military record, the pressure of the law off your back and a generous amount of cash in the bank. All I need is for you to do a job for me." He smiled. "Think of it as being like a mercenary contract, but with a much higher pay." he looked down at her, his glasses slipping forward a bit, but not revealing his eyes. "What do you think?"

"Eyebrow." She replied, and walked off.

He fingered his right eyebrow, noting the small scar across it that he thought he'd concealed. "Think about it, will you?" She stopped, and looked back at him. "If you want me, I'll be around."

-----

The party had eventually wound down, everyone slowly staggering home as a cluster, some more drunk then others. Bekka and Rick, probably the two top wrecks, had somehow managed to make it up the stairs, presumably to vanish into his room. Sel had no illusions about what was happening there. She also didn't care, as she realised that the odds of them seeing each other after this week were pretty slim.

Alice had left early after only a few drinks to return to her duties onboard the ship. Alex and Bob had it the easiest, having merely collapsed into piles on the lounge room floor. Matt, who was far more upright, had helped guide them home. Sandra had vanished into her room, firmly announcing that she hated the world, which Sel suspected meant she was very drunk.

She looked out over the back garden, taking in the bare grass, the baseball diamond, the rusted fence (that the Black Zoid had inadvertently stomped), and then out to the rusted overhead rail and the piles of debris further afield. "It's so different." She said to herself. Something caught her eye as she looked around. There was a ladder nailed to the outside of the balcony, leading up to the roof. An experimental tug revealed that it was sound and could take her weight.

Swinging over the balcony and onto the ladder, she quickly scrambled up the ladder and onto the roof. To her surprise, she found that there was already somebody up there, sitting in a rather sulky-looking ball. Gently walking over, she stood next to her. "Mind if I sit?"

"It really doesn't matter" she muttered.

Sel took that as a 'yes' and sat down next to her, then lay down flat on the roof to stare up into the sky. In a small town with few inhabitants, there was very little light pollution to block out the stars. The inky-black sky overhead was dotted with literally thousands of pinprick light points. To Sel, it was an unusual sight to say the least. "Beautiful night." She said.

"It really doesn't matter"

"I don't see night skies like this where I come from." She continued. "Something like this is a rare treat for me."

"It really doesn't matter"

The two of them sat there in silence for a while, before Sel finally sat up. "You've been very quiet these last few days." he finally said. "Something bothering you?"

-----

Kingswood Army Base

The Vinterlands

Tuesday

Captain Rob Buckingham strode into the hanger bay. Ahead of him, he could see his squad standing on parade, their white and grey Strike Zillas lined up behind them. As he approached, the sergeant shouted for them, to come to attention. As one, the squad stood straight and saluted.

"At ease." He said as he walked towards them, inspecting each of them as he passed. Almost without exception, they seemed to be the same to him; all the same height and build, with the same blank look on their face. Oh, sure they looked different, but there was so much sameness to them all. The dull Khaki uniforms they wore seemed to make them all blend into each other just that little bit more. Well, all but one of them.

The newest member of the squadron, hidden away at the end of the line up. She stood out for numerous reasons, being the only woman in the squad was just one of them. Where as most of the members of the squad were average to tall and solidly built, she was short, blonde and, for want of a better word, cute. The fact that her uniform seemed several sizes too large for her didn't help matters at all. Of course, the other thing that really stood out was her bright yellow-green eyes, which he considered to be slightly disturbing. She was trying her best to stand to her attention, but her height and the way her uniform hung off her made it hard to take seriously.

He turned around to face them. "I have just been given new orders from the Colonel." He began. "Our squadron has been included as a part of a task force to be sent into the Dark Continent. Apparently, command is concerned about the number of independent Zoid units operating near our borders. This operation has been tasked with locating and eliminating as many of those units as possible." He had his suspicions that this operation would involve more locating and less eliminating, but he kept them to himself. "We are expected to be mobilized within the next three days. In the meantime, I want you all to make ready to move out immediately."

He nodded to the Sergeant. "Squad... DIS-MISSED!". As one, the men turned to leave.

"Wait a moment, Hagen." Rob began.

She stopped suddenly, and turned around, looking rather nervous and startled. "Y-yes sir?" She replied.

"I have something to show you, Private." He continued. "I think you'll find it interesting."

"M-me? Yes sir." She replied, nervously.

"Come with me." The pair of them walked to another hanger. Inside it was a solitary Zoid. It appeared to be a Strike Zilla like the one she piloted, but there were several changes. The structure of the Zoid was black instead of the usual grey, while the armour was a dull grey instead of the usual white. It also lacked the twin-barreled light cannons. In its place, the left shoulder hardpoint was equipped with a multi-bladed antenna or sensor pod of some description. On the right shoulder, it carried a large, singe-barreled cannon.

"What is it, sir?" She asked.

"Once again, we've had our request for newer Zoids knocked back." Rob replied. "So we've had to make do with modifying existing units. This is the Strike Zilla Sniper, or Snipe Zilla as we like to call it."

"Snipe Zilla, sir?"

"The large cannon on the shoulder is a 135mm Dober Anti-Zoid Rifle. In terms of range, accuracy and hitting power, it's comparable to the sniper weapon used by the Gunsniper." He explained. "The other shoulder pod contains a long-range targeting system to compliment the rifle."

"Why are you showing me this sir?" She asked.

"Because from today, this will be your new Zoid, Victoria."

She gulped. "Th- thank you sir. But, um, why me? I mean, I'm practically new to this unit and I've got so little experience."

"Yes, but tests have shown that you're the best marksman in the unit." He explained. "I've seen your performance evaluations. With both Zoid mounted and hand-held weapons, you're the best shot we have. It makes sense for you to pilot it."

"I suppose so, sir." She replied.

"Tell you what, Victoria." He said. "How about you suit up and we take it out for a practice run?"

-----

Grid S2F-1

Dark Continent

A Week Later

After three days of hunting around and false leads, intel had finally given them a solid lead. A group of bandits, known as the Red Wolves had been located and identified. As far as Victoria was aware, hers was the first unit to have actually encountered an enemy force.

They had set up in a canyon, at the intersection of two smaller branch canyons. The satellite imagery had revealed that the group were heading along one of the branch canyons, and would eventually come through here. Captain Buckingham had set up an ambush at the intersection, and Victoria knew that she was a vital part of it.

The Red Wolves were a known group, who had been known to travel across the ice flows to attack the outlying areas of the Vinterlands. Intelligence knew that they had a group of seven or eight Command Wolves, and that their leader piloted a Houndsoldier. The captain was expecting them to come through the canyon, and walk straight into their trap. Her job was to take out the Houndsoldier first, and then any other Zoids that presented themselves.

"They're coming!" the advance scout shouted from further up the canyon.

"Right. Everybody ready!" the captain shouted.

Victoria flipped down the targeting eyepiece for the sniper rife, and focused on the end of the canyon. The captain had suggested that she wait until several more had entered the canyon. That way, they could get more before they knew what was going on and had a chance to escape.

Within minutes, the lead Zoid of the group had entered the canyon. It was the Houndsoldier, its twin attack lances stowed on its back and apparently not carrying any extra weapons pods on the port on its back. Behind it trailed a pair of white and grey Command Wolves, with a third one emerging from around the corner.

Buckingham's Strike Zilla signaled with its arm. She lined up the Houndsoldier and fired. There was a loud "bang" from the rifle, and then the enemy Zoid suddenly bucked and collapsed onto its side. Before the others could react, she turned to a Command Wolf and fired again. Like the first, there was the roar of the cannon's fire, followed by the target collapsing, and then another.

The remaining Command Wolves stopped where they were, then turned around and began running back into the branch canyon. "After them!" the captain shouted. "Don't let them get away. Hagen!"

"Yes captain?" She asked.

"You stay here, in case they double back. Muller, you stay with her."

"Yes sir!" They both replied.

The remaining Strike Zillas headed off into the canyon, chasing after the Command Wolves.

Victoria waited at the end of the canyon with Muller for a few minutes. "What do you suppose is happening?" She eventually asked.

"I dunno." He replied. "Ah, stuff it. I'm gonna try to get in on the action. You with me?"

"But the captain said to say here!" She protested.

"Yeah, well I don't think they're coming back any time soon." Muller said. "Tell you what. You stay here, I'll chase after the bad guys." With that his Strike Zilla ran off into the canyon.

Less then a minute later, it emerged from the canyon, running. A second Strike Zilla, which she recognised form the markings as being captain Buckingham's followed it. The pair of them were apparently being chased by one of the Command Wolves from before.

"What's-" she began, but was cut off.

"Run!" the captain shouted. "Get out of here now!"

"I don't-" she began, but stopped when the Command Wolf suddenly exploded. Behind it, something else emerged form the canyon. A huge, flying black shape, with massive black wings and evil red eyes.

"Run!" He shouted again. The thing, whatever it was fired again, blasting the Strike Zilla's head apart. She screamed, turned and ran. Behind her, she could hear the sound of more firing and what she guessed was Muller's Zoid exploding. Then a horrific roaring, screaming sound as the monster swooped down on her.

-----

Kingswood Army Base

The Vinterlands

"Well?" Colonel Pie was looking out the window of his office. It was raining outside, while Whale Kings were unloading troops. Over the last few days, his men had been returning from the Dark Continent, their operation having been arbitrarily cancelled after one attack. "So what's the final damage, major?"

Major John Shepherd, who had been in charge of the operation stood behind him, report in hand. "Captain Buckinhgam's entire squadron, save for one pilot, were wiped out by an unknown attacker. The exact details are unclear, but it appears that whoever was responsible wiped out the Red Wolves as well. We found the remains of numerous Strike Zillas on site, as well as a number of Command Wolves and a Houndsolider. The exact numbers are hard to determine as many of the Zoids are simply too destroyed to determine what came form what."

"I see. It was them, I knew it." He replied without turning. "Survivors?"

Them. Right. John had long ago learned to put up with the Colonel's eccentricities. "We found only one man from captain Buckingham's squadron, a Private Victoria Hagen. She survived the destruction of her Zoid unharmed, but in a state of shock. We transported her back to the base for treatment."

"So will she be able to tell us what happened?"

"There is a problem with that, sir." He replied. "Provate Hagen vanished from the base hospital last night. We're still checking the security details, but there appears to be no sign of a struggle. Of course, in her stare, if somebody had taken her she may not have been capable of resisting."

"I see." Pie said. "It's obvious what's going on here, Major. They're covering their tracks. I want you to put out a warrant for her. List her as wanted for questioning. Or maybe just desertion. But make sure she's bought in alive and unharmed."

"Yes sir."

-----

"It really doesn't matter."

"Don't want to talk about it?" Sel asked.

"It really doesn't matter."

Sel could see where this was going. She lay back on the roof to look up at the stars. Damn. She thought. This'll probably be one of the last times I see a view like this in a long time.

After a while (She wasn't keeping track of how long) Vic simply got up and walked off, climbing down the ladder. Sel waited a few minutes, then climbed down after her, only to find that she was nowhere to be seen. The only person there was Matt, who was nursing a glass of water.

"Something up, Captain?" He asked as she climbed down.

"Nothing, just thinking." She replied.

"About the mission?"

"Yeah." She leaned back against the railing, and turned to face him. "Alice and I rigged up a long-range communicator, and I sent off a message to command. It was a one-way affair and we don't even know if they got it, but if they did, command know everything."

"You told them about Kandrak?"

"Kandrak, the attack on the Dark Star, our status... basically everything since we dealt with that last desert bandit group." She replied. "I did leave out a few things, though."

He indicated to Rick's bedroom window. "Like that?"

She crossed her arms. "For one. I'm also not going to go into much detail into our connection with these mercenaries. I've listed them as a local mercenary force who we coincidentally encountered taking on Kandrak and that they pose no security risk." Sel explained. "I can only hope they accept it."

"And if they don't?"

"I expect I'll have to submit full profiles on them, complete with my assessment of their capabilities, threat posed and likely current whereabouts. They'd never believe a word of it, even if it was the honest truth."

"I doubt a comic book writer turned mercenary would go over very well with them." Matt replied.

"And that's before they get to Vic." She finished, and then laughed.

"So is something bothering you?" He asked.

She sighed. "This is likely the end of our mission, Matt. We'll need head home to get the ship completely repaired, and I can't see high command being too thrilled with my report."

"How so?"

"So far we've gotten the ship half-wrecked and two crew members killed. We've got a potential security breach. We've been nearly wiped out twice, and bailed out by locals on one occasion. And we haven't even come close to our objectives." She explained. "And our one big accomplishment, taking out Kandrak, was only achieved with outside assistance."

"It doesn't look good." Matt agreed.

"Yeah." She turned around to look out at the town. "Better enjoy it while you can. I very much doubt that we'll be seeing anything except for barren rock for a very, very long time to come."

-----

Unlike most of the town's inhabitants who either hated the overhead rail or ignored it, Emil Desmond liked it. Besides the fact that he wasn't actually a resident of the town, he liked if for the good vantage point it provided for him to watch the house. From up here, he could get a pretty good idea of who was coming and going. Today looked like it was going to be a quiet day. It was past noon, and there had been very little activity. He suspected that most of its inhabitants were still hung over from last night's excesses.

On the other hand, nothing unexpected had happened, which was always good during surveillance. That Darth and his Zoid turning up yesterday had been something of a shock to him. For a moment, he was convinced that it was about to attack, and had been looking for options to intervene. Fortunately, the situation seemed to have resolved itself.

One thing was bothering him, and that was the other people in the house. He'd recognised Rick, Sandra and Victoria from the files, but the others were mysteries to him. Asking around he'd found that they'd arrived with the house's owners, driving around a bunch of Dark Zoids. He'd decided to write them up as other mercenaries for the moment.

Now if only he could convince Hagen out of hiding. She was his first choice for this operation, but by no means his only. However, he'd been given a deadline by his commander to present a result, and he didn't have the time go after his second choices...

"Eyebrow."

He turned around to find the source of the voice. There, standing over him, was Victoria. She was wearing grey fatigues and a pair of goggles (currently pushed up onto her forehead), and wearing a backpack and carrying a large case on her back, and grinning in a way that suggested that she was insane and likely to bite. Right now, he noted, she looked very little like the nervous looking young woman in the file. Before thought to do anything else, he covered his scar and missing eye on the right side of his face, while reaching for his sunglasses.

"Good to see you here, Victoria." He began, grabbing his glasses and putting them on, then standing. He extended his hand.

She ignored it. "So what's the deal?"

Emil wasn't going to be put off. "You're direct. Good." He stated. "Very well. You get a million in the bank, and the desertion charges against you dropped."

"And?" She replied. "What do I do?"

"I need you to accompany me on a mission." He replied. "Its a lengthy operation, lasting at least a month, and is potentially dangerous. However, I feel it is well suited to one of your skills."

"So who am I working for?" She asked.

Professional, he thought. "Vinterlands army. The orders came from military intelligence."

"Good." She finished. "What do I need?"

"What have you got?"

"Clothes on my back." She replied. "Survival gear. Personal sidearm." She indicated towards the case.

"That should cover it. We can provide for any other eventualities." He finished.

"Good. Let's go." She said.

"Don't have anyone you need to say anything to or see before you leave?" He indicated to the house. "Understand that for security reasons I'd ask you not to discuss what you were doing."

"No." She replied. "There's nothing here."

-----

Rick was trying to decide whether he thought Sandra was great or terrible right now. On one hand, she'd volunteered him for trolley duty to go get replacement all the food they'd managed to eat their way through in the last few days. Rick had bought enough for three, when he was feeding eight. On the other hand, he was getting time alone with Bekka away from everyone else.

The last few days had been... well, interesting to say the least. He was surprised to find that Bekka was so interested in what he was doing Most girls he met said "that's nice" and found someone else to talk to. Maybe she liked the graphic medium, he thought. Or maybe its the way she was going to be immortalized on paper. She'd certainly liked the character design sketches he'd done for her, with the different facepaint designs and the tattoos... all the tattoos, the thought.

"Trolley!" She shouted. He grabbed the shopping trolley and yanked it violently to the right as it tried to run out onto the road.

"Thanks for that." He replied. "I'm normally faster, today..."

"You're as hung over as all hell." She replied.

"Well... yeah." Rick finished. "Man, I don't even want to know what I drank last night."

"Some of the stuff you drank last night looked pretty terrible." She offered. "I'm not even sure what some of it was."

"Last time I let Sandra pick the venue..." He moaned. "So how come you're not dead? You must have drunk as much as I did."

"Maybe what I drank was less toxic then what you took." She suggested. "I'm pretty sure none of it was paint stripper, for example."

"Har har." Rick replied, dryly. "Still..." He smiled. "Thanks, by the way."

"What?" She asked.

"Last night, and before that. You, uh... you gave me a lot to work with."

"You're a nice guy, Rick." She said. "I was glad to help you out."

Rick really wanted to talk about them and their relationship. He knew that it wasn't going to work out between them and the odds of them being able to stay together were slim.. Unfortunately, he was looking for the way to say it and they way to get it through his drink addled brain. So he improvised. "So what are you guys doing next?"

"Not sure." She said, shoving her hands in her pockets. "I suspect that Sel will want us to get back to our... Trolley!"

Rick and the trolley had strayed back onto the road, with the Trolley slowly turning to the left. He once again grabbed it and shoved it to the right, pushing himself off the road, just as a Sandspeeder sped past, nearly running him over. As he picked himself up, he noticed someone on the back. A short, blonde woman...

"Rick, that was Vic on the back of that speeder" Bekka began.

"Yeah, I saw." He commented as he dusted himself off, mentally figuring that Bekka had rather good eyes if she could Identify Vic as she went past.

"You, uh, don't think we should tell someone about this?"

"Vic riding around with someone in a Sandspeeder and almost running me over?" He picked up the fallen trolley. "That's weird, even for her. I wonder who the other guy was?"

"You, ah, think we should tell someone?" Bekka asked.

-----

The Sandspeeder drove out of town for a few minutes, then veered off into the rocky canyons to its north. Vic recognised this place. It was a great area to hide something in; they'd hidden the Whale King in a similar canyon on the other side of town. After a few minutes of bobbing and weaving through the canyons, they came to a large open area. For some reason, she wasn't at all surprised to find that there was a Whale Shark, the far smaller predecessor of the Whale King, waiting in it, the front ramp down.

The Sandspeeder sped up the ramp, then stopped inside. Her eyes quickly adjusting to the gloom of the bay, she saw a blue and grey Gustav, waiting inside, apparently the sole occupant of the bay. She could see at least four trailers behind it, each loaded high with supply crates. There also appeared to be a fair number of people about, all wearing military uniforms. One of them detached from the group and came over to the Sandspeeder. He was rather plain looking, of average height and build, with a small and long brown hair.

"This her?" He asked.

The Sandspeeder pilot replied. "Derrick Hallis, meet Victoria Hagen. She'll be assisting us with this operation."

"Pleased to meet you." He said, offering his hand.

She got off the Sandspeeder and collected her bags. "So when do we go?" she asked the driver, ignoring Derrick for the moment.

"As soon as possible. Derrick, could you please show Ms Hagen to her quarters? I just need to speak to the captain."

"Certainly." He turned towards her. "If you could come with me, please."

"Whatever." She replied, and walked away from the Sandspeeder with him.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Emil picked up the communicator. "Stone, this is Desmond. Release the hounds."

-----

Sandra was somewhat surprised to see Rick and Bekka come bursting in through the front door, gasping for breath (Rick more so then Bekka.) The fact that they didn't have the trolley with them was an annoying extra. "You better have a good reason to abandon that trolley, Rick." She began. "And 'it tried to kill me' isn't good enough."

"We nearly got run over by a Sandspeeder." He panted. "Vic was riding in it with some strange guy we didn't recognise."

"Short black hair, black suit, sunglasses." Bekka added. "Recognise him?"

Sandra thought for a second. "Sounds like a million people I know. Damn." She stormed up the stairs and down the hall to her room. "Vic, you in there?" she shouted. No answer.

Rick followed her. "What's going on?" He asked.

"No idea." She replied. "Vic's been acting weird lately."

Rick shot her a critical glare.

"Okay, well, weird for her." She finished, then knocked loudly on the door. "Vic, are you in there?"

"Well?" Rick asked.

"My hand's getting sore, but that's it." She turned to him. "We're going to have to do something very dangerous."

"You mean..."

"I'm afraid so." She finished. "We're going in."

She opened the door and stepped in, Rick nervously following her. Vic's room was... odd. That was the only way he could think to say it. Despite the fact that it was the early afternoon, the blinds on the windows were shut, light creeping in through the oddly disjointed cracks between the odd bent or missing slat. Her bunk bed was a mess; the top bunk being a pile of unmade sheets, the bottom covered in magazines, cardboard boxes, and assorted weapon parts. Several disassembled guns were on the floor, each one laid out on old newspapers with some other parts that could have been from a motorcycle or a Zoid or anything. A corkboard was attached to one wall, with several knives stuck into it.

Rick walked over to it to take a closer look. There was a photo there of the three of them, a wrecked Zoid behind them. Rick remembered the photo. It had been taken after the first mission the three of them had done together. Sandra had intimidated a captured pilot into taking the photo for them. He hadn't used it as an opportunity to escape, which had caused Sandra to comment that there was still hope for the species.

"Found anything?" Sandra asked. She was looking through Vic's cupboard.

"Nope." Rick replied. He looked over her desk. There was a couple more of the gun magazines, looking rather tattered and dog eared. Near them was a pair of model Zoids; a Gunsniper with the Weasel Pod and a rather battered looking Arosaurer. Next to them was a photo frame, currently lying face down.

Curious, he picked it up. The photo in the frame was of a cute blonde girl, probably about ten or so, sitting on the shoulders of a man in a military uniform. It wasn't until he saw the girl's bright green eyes that he recognised her. It was Vic, cute and lovable and not the least bit insane looking. "Freaky" He muttered, and put it down again.

"Her pilot suit's gone." Sandra called from the cupboard.

"What?" Rick asked.

"Yeah. I don't know what else is gone, but I'd hazard a guess that she's got at least one change of clothes." She looked around. "And I haven't found a single complete gun as yet. That's not a good sign."

Sandra stormed out of the room. "Sel!" She shouted.

"Yeah?" Came the reply form down stairs.

Sandra ran down there. "You're not still carrying your communicator around despite my wishes for you not to?"

"...yes." She sheepishly replied.

"Good." Sandra said. "Get on the horn to your techs working on our Zoids. I want to know if Vic's Gunsniper is there."

"Uh, sure..." She began. She was about to call, when the communicator beeped.

"Sel, its Alice here." The voice came over the communicator. "We've just detected a Whale Shark taking off to the north of the town."

Rick ran down the stairs. "North?" He asked. "That's the direction Vic was headed on the speeder."

"What direction is it headed?" Sel asked.

"North-north east" Alice replied. "If it maintains this heading, it'll head out over the oceans and away from the Vinterlands, passing over the Skillazz Ice field..." Alice trailed off. "Captain, that's..."

"Its the same route we took to get here." Sel finished. "They're heading for the Dark Continent."

-----


	20. Bad Dog, No Biscut

Bed Springs

The Wastelands

1400 Hours

Anyone looking to the north of Bed Springs would have seen a pair of unusual sights. The first was a Whale Shark taking off from the rocky canyons to the north of the town. The second was a large dust and sand cloud being kicked up by a trio of Zoids approaching the town at high speeds. They were Zeekdobers, high-speed, dog-like Zoids. They were identical, but each one of them carried a different weapon; the left one carried a Vulcan cannon, the right one a twin-barreled cannon and the center one a pair of lift jets.

Samuel Stone rode in the cockpit of the lead Zoid. He was a mercenary, the leader of the group. He wouldn't describe himself as a "bad" man, more of "amoral." By the same standards, he saw himself as being a "freedom fighter" rather then a "terrorist". He was a large man, with blonde hair, tanned skin and small eyes. Flicking on the communicator, he opened a link to the Whale Shark. "So what do you want us to do?"

Desomnd's scarred face appeared on the screen. "There is a hanger in the town containing a Command Wolf, a Gunsniper, a Shield Liger and five Dark Zoids. Destroy it and all the Zoids."

"And the rest of the town?"

"Irrelevant." Desmond replied. "If anything gets in your way, destroy it."

Stone grinned. "You really know how to make the men happy." And closed the connection.

"What's happening, boss?" Mike Hurley, one of his team asked. He was a wild looking man with a mess of blond hair falling across his face.

"We're going to find a specific group of Zoids and whack 'em." He replied.

"What types?" Kang Lee, the third man of his squad asked. He was a slim man, with short, spiky dark hair.

"Shield Liger, Command Wolf, Gunsniper and some Darkies." Stone replied. "They're said to be in a hanger and not active, so that makes it easy."

"How do we know which hanger?" Mike asked.

"Simple." He stated. "We destroy everything in the town until we find it."

-----

Sel stormed through the house, shouting into her communicator. "What's the status of the ship, Alice?"

"We're still undergoing repairs." She replied. "The long range communications are still out of action."

"Right." Sel said. "Get the ship ready to move out as soon as possible. I don't care where that Whale Shark came from or who it belongs to. I jsut don't like where it's heading."

"Yes captain. Your orders?"

"As soon as you can, come by here and pick us up." Sel ordered. "Then we're setting off after that-" An explosion in the distance cut her off. "What the hell was that?"

Rick ran by her, darting out onto the porch and looking to the north edge of town. "Looks like someone just blasted Billy Bob's."

"Billy Bob's?" Sel asked.

"Guns and ammo store." Rick asked. "Damn, that must have gone up good."

"Hmmm..." She said. "There aren't any Zeekdobers in this town, are there?"

"Not that I know of. Why do you..." Rick began, then trailed off. A black and red Zoid dashed between a pair of buildings. Turning a bit, he could see another one, definitely a Zeekdober, charging down a street. Damn, do all these girls have good eyes, he asked himself. The Zeekdober fired on an empty hanger with it's back mounted cannon. "Damn! They're attacking the town!"

Sel ran into the house. "Everyone!" She shouted. "The town is under attack. Two or three Zeekdobers, coming in from the north edge."

Rick shoved past her. "They already got the guns and ammo store!"

"Everyone!" Sandra shouted from downstairs. "Zoids! Now!" It wasn't a precise order, but it was good enough for everyone. There was a general scramble as people picked themselves up and tripped over each other to get their gear together and get our of the house. Rick and Sandra had the advantage here, not having to pick their gear out form everyone else's (Rather then from the mess in their rooms.). The pair of them were the first ready, darting out the door.

"We'll hold 'em off while you lot get ready." Sandra shouted. "Now move it!"

Sel grabbed her communicator. "Alice, it's Sel again. The town is under attack by a force of at least two Zeekdobers. Do not move the Whale King in until I give the all clear, understood?"

"Yes captain." Alice replied.

-----

Sandra and Rick ran down the street towards the hanger, clutching their helmets with them as they ran. In the distance, they could see several fires burning across the north of the town, forming a trail of destruction that was getting closer to them. "What do you suppose they're after?" Rick shouted as they ran.

"No idea." Sandra replied. "But their timing is great. Vic runs off with some guy and then they show up."

"Too close to be a coincidence." Rick shouted back. "You think someone's trying to cover their escape?"

"Either that or they've been sent to rub us out." Sandra concluded. "Either way it sounds bad."

They ran for a little more. "You don't think Vic was kidnapped, do you?" Rick asked.

"Can't say." Sandra replied. "Who can tell with that girl?"

"I 'spose so." Rick said, shrugging as he went.

"Speaking of girls..." Sandra said as she ran. "How's things going with you and Bekka?"

"What?" The pair of them reached the hanger.

"Come on. She spends two nights in your room and you've been inseparable from her since." Sandra said as she shoved the side door open. "You can't tell me nothing's happening there."

"Well..." Rick began as they stepped into the hanger, then stopped. "Hey! The Gunsniper's still there." He pointed up. Vic's Gunsniper was indeed standing with the other Zoids, the damage to its leg having been repaired already. Everything else in the hanger looked normal; grey jumpsuited technicians were working on repairs to the various Zoids in the hanger.

"So either she didn't leave willingly, or they couldn't take it with them." Sandra said.

"Yeah." Rick replied. "I can't see her leaving it behind for any other reason."

The two of them ran to their Zoids. As she climbed up the access ladder, Sandra looked over the Shield Liger's body. It seemed that the damage done by the Gordox had been repaired; the Liger had several panels that were still in its base metallic colour. She climbed into the cockpit, and shouted for a tech. "Hey!" She yelled. "What's Shield Kitty's status?"

The tech waved at her from by the foot. "We've got most of the damage repaired." He shouted back. "Haven't sprayed the panels as yet, but that's it. Just watch the Impact cannon; it took a bit of a hit and we haven't had the opportunity to test it yet."

"Thanks." She shouted, then closed the canopy. Donning the neurohelmet and activating the link, she could feel the Shield Liger's body as the systems came on line. The Zoid gave a small growl as it started up. "Yeah, its great to be back too." Sandra said. "You feeling okay?" It growled again.

"How's Spud?" Rick asked over the communicator.

"Okay." Sandra replied. "But his paint job's a mess."

"Cool." Rick said. "Let's get 'em."

-----

Mike Hurley wasn't a sophisticated man. He liked loud music, having a good time and blowing things up. That's how he'd ended up working for Stone. Stone promised him lots of violence and destruction, and the money he got from it ensured a steady supply of good times and, incidentally, loud music. He'd slipped his favorite disc into the sound system he'd had specially installed into his Zeekdober; a compilation of the Wild Hairy Dogs' (His favorite shock-metal band) greatest hits.

The Zeekdober skidded to a halt outside a hanger. He'd already trashed two hangers and "buzzed" a Bigasaur that had been turned into a tow-truck (He figured killing it before he could taunt it some more was no fun) before he'd gotten here. Neither of the others had gotten this far as yet, so it looked promising. Backing the 'dober up a bit, he readied the back mounted beam cannon.

The doors on the hanger opened before he could strike, revealing a Shield Liger and Command Wolf inside. Thinking quickly, he squeezed the trigger for the cannon. It spat a stream of shells at the Liger, only to have them stopped dead by its shield.

"Hey! No fair!" He shouted. The Command Wolf leapt past the Liger, throwing itself at his Zeekdober. He quickly leapt out of the way, the Wolf landing right in front of him, growling at him menacingly. "Like, whatever, puppy." His Zoid was bigger, tougher and faster then the Command Wolf. And while it appeared to be upgraded with a large back-mounted cannon, he figured he still had more firepower.

A pair of hits rocked the Zoid. Turning around, he saw the Shield Liger standing there, its back-mounted cannons smoking. "Give it up, tool." The female Liger pilot demanded over her Zoid's PA. "We've got you outnumbered."

"Gotta catch me first, dudes." He shouted back, and ran off.

-----

"That tool." Sandra swore. "Rick, I'm going after him! I want you to try and find that other 'dober." The Shield Liger ran off after the rapidly retreating Zeekdober.

"Gotcha." He replied. 'And I'll let the others know as well."

Now let's see... he thought. The attackers had come from the north side of the down. This meant that, logically, that's where the other one was most likely to be. All he had to do was find it and tie it up for long enough for the others to come and help him deal with it. Not a problem. He set his Wolf off into a run, heading towards the northern edge of the town. As he progressed, he couldn't help but notice the destruction wreaked by the attackers. Several buildings had been destroyed, fire and smoke billowing from their wreckage into the sky. It was fortunate that, so far, the buildings destroyed had been relatively isolated to reduce the risk of the fire spreading.

Suddenly, a Zoid burst out from a crossroads at an intersection, firing its back-mounted cannons at a nearby building. "I've got you now!" Rick shouted as he turned his Command Wolf to chase the fleeing Zoid, and opened the throttle all the way. Activating the targeting system, he locked onto the enemy Zoid and fired, however the twin blasts went wide. The enemy pilot, aware of his attacker, fired back with the tail mounted cannon, also missing Rick, before throwing the Zoid into a tight turn into a side street.

Rick carelessly continued past, but then turned into the next street, and activated the boosters so he was running parallel to his target. He could see the red and black dog Zoid between buildings. Perfect. Even though it was slower and less powerful then the Zeekdober, the Command Wolf had one definite advantage. Rick grinned as he turned the turret mounted cannons to the right to track the enemy. His main guns were turreted, while the Dober's faced directly forwards and aft. Gotcha

He maintained the chase, waiting for an opening. When they came to an intersection, he took his opportunity and fired. Unfortunately, just as he fired, the Zeekdober sped up. One of the two beams went wide, the other one blowing apart the two blades on the Zoid's back, but doing no real damage. The Zeekdober continued to accelerate, leaving the Command Wolf in the dust behind it.

"Damn, that is fast!" Rick shouted. He was pushing his Command Wolf to its maximum speed, and the Zeekdober was still accelerating away from him. He tried to remember what he'd read about the Zeekdober. He figured it had to be going Helluva fast (That is to say, in his mind, at least as fast of a Lightning Saix).

A warning siren from his sensors grabbed his attention. A second Zoid was coming up behind him. Swiveling the cannons around, he could see through the attached sensors it was the Zeekdober, using the back-mounted hoverjets to leap over the buildings. Well done, he thought. Double back to get me. He fired a pair of blasts from the back cannon, then threw the Wolf around a sharp turn. The Zeekdober suddenly waved to the right to avoid the shot, and continued to follow him. Checking the sensors, Rick could see that it was still hovering behind him. While not as fast as it was on the ground, the lift fans allowed the Zeekdober to ignore obstacles like buildings. It also made it very hard for Rick to hide from it.

"So he likes to fly, huh?" Rick thought. He knew just where to go. Throwing the Wolf into another sharp turn, he ran up a junk pile and then leapt off it, sending chunks of scrap metal flying everywhere. Behind him, the Zeeksdober weaved and bobbed to avoid the debris, temporarily slowing it down.

"Come on, boy." Rick continued, grinning. "Go fetch!" He ran down a debris-choked street, weaving between piles of scrap and derelict buildings, doing his best to avoid fire form the Zeekdober. Looking ahead, he could see his objective. "Heel!" He shouted over the PA at the Zeekdober, as he swiveled the cannons back to face forwards. The Dober swooped down close to him, only to get a face full of black smoke billowing out from the Wolf's smoke dispensers.

Keeping the Wolf going at top speed and the dispensers open, Rick sighted his objective ahead. The Command Wolf sped under the elevated rail track, and then turned around. He figured that with its sensor fins damaged and the track hidden in the smoke, there was a good chance of the flying Zeekdober smashing straight into it. If not, it would have to veer away to avoid the collision, and he'd be ready for it.

Nothing happened.

"What?" Rick asked himself as the smoke slowly dispersed. "Nothing?"

An explosion behind him threw the Wolf forwards. Grabbing the controls, Rick managed to stabilise the Zoid before it fell over. He spun around, to see a Zeekdober behind him, its back-mounted cannon pod smoking. Its blades, he noted, had been shot off.

Wait a second.... Gun pod. Undamaged antenna. Oh dear.

A noise to his right grabbed his attention. A second, undamaged, Zeekdober slolwy decended on a pair of hover fans, and advanced towards his Wolf, barking as it went. The wolf growled, and slowly backed off form the two advancing dogs. "Hey, Sandra." Rick slowly said into the comms.

"What?" She repelied. "This better be good. I'm having a problem with this Dober."

"Well, um..." He began. "Better make it a total of three Zeekdobers."

"What?"

The fan equipped Zeekdober loomed over him menacingly, and barked. Before it could do anything, however it was hit in the back by a volley of shits, shaking it around. Turning form the Wolf, it ran off, using its fans to leap behind a pile of debris. Looking where it was, Rick saw a Heldigunner lurking next to a pile of derelict rail stock, its back mounted cannon cluster smoking.

Bekka's smiling face appeared on the comms screen. "Hey." She began. "You just can't keep out of trouble, can you?"

Rick grinned. "Yeah, you know me. Always where the danger is."

The second Zeekdober also ran off, several shots tearing up the landscape around it. The massive shape of Matt's Deadborder emerged from behind a pile of scrap, chasing after it, the Zoid roaring angrily.

"C'mon." Rick said. "Let's teach these clowns to mess up our holiday."

-----

Sandra took another sharp corner, her Liger's claws digging in to help it in the turn and keep it from skidding. Behind her, the Zeekdober skidded around the corner, then sped up to continue the pursuit. Flicking on the tail-mounted cannon, she fired a few shots at her pursuer. The first went wide, the second tore some armour form off the left shoulder to very little effect. In return, the dog Zoid opened fire with its back mounted autocannon, tearing into the armour on the Liger's right flank.

Grunting off the damage, she threw the Liger for another turn, narrowly avoiding hitting a pile of derelict Zoid pieces. The Zeekdober skidded around the corner, taking it badly and ploughing into the pile of scrap. Before she had the chance to celebrate, however, it was back on its feet and still in pursuit.

Her pursuit of the Zeekdober had started off well enough, even though it was faster, she knew the landscape better and had managed to catch up with it. However, he'd somehow ended up behind her, and hadn't let up since. Shaking him was hard; the Zeekdober's top speed was a good hundred kilometers per hour faster then the Shield Liger's. And, unlike the Serpent Zoids who had given her similar problems, its weaponry was enough to be a serious problem to the Liger.

Her only real advantage had come with the discovery that the Zeekdober was terrible at cornering at speed. This had lead Sandra to taking a lot of sharp corners in the hope that the Zeekdober would end up skidding and crashing into something. Or maybe just breaking its legs off. So far she'd had no such luck. Of course, Rick informing her that there was a third one didn't make her feel too much better.

A comms window opened with Sel on it. She was shouting, the sound of her Zoid's heavy autocannon firing in the background. "How are you going there?" She shouted.

"Not too good." Sandra replied. "I've got some aggro tool in a ZD on my date." Sandra replied. "These tools are just to ferking fast for us!"

Sel seemed to take a minute to translate what Sandra just said. "I noticed." She eventually came out with. "My Zoids have been left in the dust, and Rick is faring only a little better."

"Yeah." Rick Interjected. "Zeekdobers took my baby!" Then he laughed.

There was a long pause. Finally Sandra spoke. "What the hell was that?"

"Um..." Rick replied. "I thought, well, since Vic isn't here..." He looked ashamed.

"Right." Sel said. "Any good ideas?"

"Any ideas to slow them down?" Sandra said. "They corner badly at speed, but that's about it."

"One or two." Sel replied. "Listen carefully. This is what we're going to do."

-----

Alex's Heldigunner squatted on top of a large pile of scrap. From up here, he had a pretty good view across the junkyard, which was perfect for artillery spotting. Now to get a good shot at that Zeekdober...

His communicator crackled to life. "Are you there, Senior?" It was Sel.

"Yes captain." He replied.

"What's your status?"

"Myself, Cade and Kahm are attempting to engage one of the enemy Zoids in one of the junk sections of the town." He reported. "So far he's his high speed makes him hard to engage."

"Are there any civilians around?"

Alex took a look around. If there was anyone around, they were very good at not being seen. "Not that I'm aware of, captain." He replied.

"Good." She said. "Cade, Kahm?"

"Yes, captain?" The pair of them, replied, entering into the channel.

"I want you two to use active terrain denial to either disable or restrict the enemy." She ordered. "Senior, use support fire to restrict his movement."

"Gotcha, Captain." Alex replied. "Hey guys!"

"Yeah, what?" Bekka asked. Good to see she's sticking to normal military procedure too, he thought.

"Bekka, you go left. Bob, you go right. Let's call the overhead rail as one limit of the denial area and..." he looked around. "That junked Hovercargo as another. Think you two can handle that."

"If you can keep that Zeekdober pinned, then yes." Bob replied.

"Hey, it's easy." Bekka added.

"Good. Let's go to work, guys."

Bekka and Bob's Heldigunners both turned and dug into the ground, tunneling off in different directions. Alex, for the moment, stayed where he was, keeping an eye on the Zeekdober. The dog-like Zoid peered out from behind a derelict warehouse, and decided to run. "No you don't!" He shouted, and fired. The shot landed near the Zeekdober, tearing up the landscape and showering it with debris. The pilot wisely decided to turn and run in a different direction.

The plan was working.

-----

Unlike Stone and Hurler, Kang Lee didn't relish in wanton destruction. He preferred controlled, precision destruction; to take out the target and whatever else was needed, and not to waste time and effort on anything else. He'd hoped to locate and eliminate the targets for this attack quickly and take them out before the enemy could respond and mount a counter attack. Of course, that didn't work, and now he found himself pinned down in a junkyard by a group of Heldigunners.

He'd taken to making short bursts from point to point, trying to find cover. One of the Heldigunners, equipped with a long range cannon, was trying to shell him, and was taking shots at him every time he moved. Fortunately, his Zoid's speed had saved him so far.

These three Heldigunners were clearly the Dark Zoids mentioned in the briefing, which meant that he had to take them out. On a one-to-one basis, his Zeekdober could beat any of them. Unfortunately, he was outnumbered and they had the advantage of long-range fire. He'd been trying to formulate a plan to deal with them. In the end, it had resolved itself to a rather simple one. He'd make a run for it, circle round and take out the cannon-equipped one. Once it was out of action, taking out the other two would be easy.

The Zeekdober burst from cover again, sprinting across the junkyard. A shell went off behind him, rocking him but not damaging his Zoid. He veered to the right, taking a different path to the one the enemy pilot was expecting. Up ahead, he saw a rail bridge. Perfect. He'd hide under that, and use it as cover as he advanced. A nagging thought at the back of his head told him that one of the other Heldigunners had last been seen in this direction, but he dismissed it. If he ran across it, he could easily deal with it.

Another shot went off behind him. He broke again, heading straight for the bridge. Only a little closer, and he'd be safe. Suddenly, the Zeekdober pitched forward. The Zoid helped with pain and he felt a sensation of fear and panic through the neural link. The Zoid twisted around and landed on its side, whimpering. Trying not to panic, he checked the status boards on his console. What they showed him was grim. The Zeekdober had fallen and shattered its right foreleg. As it tried to get up, he wondered what it was that he'd stumbled into. Then, as the ground in front of him ripped open, he realised what it was.

A black and green Heldigunnenr emerged form the ground, hissing and spitting at him, appearing to be from here little more then a mess of tubes, guns and teeth. His Zoid must have crashed through a tunnel it had dig under the ground. A tunnel that would support the weight of the dirt above it, but not a Zoid treading on it. It was a brilliant plan, he admitted. And a great way for a slow Zoid to stop a fast-moving, more powerful Zoid.

Still, he couldn't allow himself to be captured like this. He reached for the trigger for the back-mounted cannons, but before he could fire, the Heldigunner fired first. His Zoid was rocked by the hits, and collapsed back onto its side. A quick check of the status boards indicated it was done for, and was about to initiate a system shutdown to preserve the core. Bloody iguanas.

The Heldigunner moved closer to him, hissing. As it approached, he could make out more details on it, such as its markings. One in particular grabbed his attention; it was a five-pointed black star, outlined form the black of the Zoids hull in a dull grey colour. "Surrender now." The male pilot announced over the PA. "Your Zoid is disabled."

Its them, he thought. He reached for his communicator. Stone needed to know what was going on.

-----

Checking her Sensors, Sandra spotted a large obstacle ahead of her. It was Joe's tow-Zoid, a modified Bigasaur that had been equipped to act as a recovery vehicle, and vital to the town's junk-hauling industry. It would make for a perfect distraction for a little while so she could set something up. "Sorry Joe." She said, as her Shield Liger made a sharp turn away from it at the last possible second. She watched behind her as the Zeekdober frantically scratched at the ground to avoid colliding with the lumbering Zoid. It averted the collision at the last second, but only by coming to a complete stop.

She left the Zeekdober standing next to the Bigasaur, regaining its footing. Right now she needed some time to make sure everything was set up just perfectly. Throwing the Shield Liger around another corner and sprinting off, she opened a link to Sel. "I've slowed fido down a bit. How are you going?"

"Getting there." Sel replied. "Bob just reported that he took down one of the Zeekdobers. Rick and Matt are trying to catch the last one, but he's being elusive."

"Well that doesn't completely suck." Sandra said. An explosion behind her grabbed her attention. Checking the rear monitor, she could see the Zeekdober charging down the street behind her, firing its cannons wildly. "Damn. Dogrooter's back on my date."

"Can you keep him busy for a little longer?" Sel asked. "I'm almost in place."

"Right." Sandra muttered. "Better be ready soon, otherwise I'm going to be one grumpy gumby."

"I'm in place now." Sel replied. "Lead the way."

"Right." Sandra said. She turned another corner, and dashed down the street at top speed. The Zeekdober stayed behind her, firing as it went. The main point of her plan relied on the Zeekdober pilot doing this; blindly following her wherever she went. Besides being not very good at cornering, the Zeekdober wasn't good at suddenly stopping when at speed. It was one of the reasons why this Zoid had faded into relative obscurity; sometimes, it was just too damn fast for its own good.

Sandra saw her objective up ahead. She opened the Liger's throttle all the way, concentrating on running more then anything else. The Zeekdober closed on her, as if the pilot was trying to get close enough to bite. she fired the tail cannons on occasion, more to keep him away then anything else. She grinned as the objective approached and then, at the last possible second, leaped away.

Sel's Darkhorn charged through the space the Liger had occupied, straight at the Zeekdober. The huge dark Zoid smashed straight into it, horn first. Few Zoids could win a head-on collision with a Darkhorn at speed; the Zeekdober wasn't one of it. The forward torso shattered, one of the legs flying off. The Zeekdober lifted into the air, spreading debris as it went, before crashing down on the ground. The Darkhorn stopped and skidded, turning to face the downed Zoid. Sandra likewise turned around to examine it.

"Yeah, that's one dead dog." She said, and whistled. "Good work there."

Sel shrugged. "Hey, it was just smashing into it. Anyone could do that."

-----

Stone was running. He knew he was in trouble. Two of the members of his team were down to the loss of none of the enemy units. As pig headed as he was known to be, he realised that he had no chance of taking down eight opponents on his own. By carrying the lift fans, he had reduced his Zoid's firepower, which reduced his chances even further.

The information Lee had given him troubled him even further. The Dark Zoids they were send after belonged to the same group that Desmond was going after. That meant that they could warn their comrades that he was coming, which meant that Desmond's operation could be over before it began. Of course, before he could do that, he needed to get away.

Checking his sensors, he could see that the Deadborder and Command Wolf were still after him. The Deadborder had opted for a straight out pursuit, while the Command wolf had tried to flank him, the pilot presumably being more familiar with the layout of the town. And with Kang and Mike down, it was only a matter of time before the others came after him. He certainly didn't like eight-on-one odds.

A pair of blasts behind him reminded him that while he was leaving the Deadborder behind, it still could hit him. The concussive shocks form the G-Cannon blasts risked his Zoid, causing it to stumble. Wrestling with the controls, he managed to keep it on its feet and keep it running. Using the fans to give him a quick boost and control the Zoid's movement, he skidded around a corner, barely managing to avoid smashing into a building. A glance at the warning lights on the control panels told him that the Zeekdober's legs were reaching critical levels of stress, and he should try to lay off the high-speed turns.

The Zoid spread down a debris-lined path through another junkyard, something this town seemed to have an overabundance of. Control in this situation became vital, owing to the number of obstacles littering the street. Behind him, blasts tore up the scrap, indicating that his pursuers weren't too far behind. Leaping over a scrap pile, he sprinted into an abandoned, half-complete rail yard. The Zeekdober ran between abandoned and often incomplete railway sheds, looking to loose its pursuers.

Stone suddenly shoved the throttle closed. The Zeekdober skidded to a halt, three sheer walls in front of it. "Damn." He swore. He could try blasting his way through it or...

A pair of shots blasted into the wall next to the Zoid's head. He could see the Command Wolf standing behind his Zoid, its cannons smoking. Further back, the Deadborder was advancing through the rail yard. He was cornered.

"Give it up, mate." The Command Wolf's pilot said. "We won't hurt you if we don't have to."

He looked around and considered his options. Flicking a switch on the extra control panel added to the Zeekdober's cockpit, he flipped the lift fans to face directly downwards, then lifted off. Below him, the Wolf and Deadborder opened fire with their various weapons, shells, beams and gravity blasts going off around him.

"Sorry guys." He replied, mockingly. "Maybe later."

-----

Rick kept firing at the Zeekdober as it lifted off. The Zoid, looking somewhat comical hanging in the air, wobbled a bit and turned around, flying away. Several shots went wide, then one hit the Zeekdober in the middle of the back, rocking it in flight. The Zeekdober continued for a second, apparently unharmed. Then, with comical slowness, the lift fans detached from the body of the Zoid. Deprived of its source of lift, the Zeekdober plummeted like a rock, smashing into the ground. The fans continued for a moment on their own momentum, then fell, smashing into the wrecked Zoid.

"Rick here." He said over the comm. "Doggie three is down. He learned not to fly."

Sandra's angry face butted into his screen. "Rick, if I ever, ever catch you trying to talk like Vic again, I will make you hurt a lot. Do you understand?"

"Yes!" He squeaked back.

"Hey, bro." Alex shoved in. "Nice work there. And for what it's worth, I thought it was a good line."

"I should get you and Vic talking." Rick replied. "You could exchange one-liners all night."

"First we get her back, okay?" Sandra butted in again.

"Anyone see any more hostiles?" Sel asked. A chorus of negatives was her reply. "Good. I'm going to call the Dark Star in for a pickup. Matt, Bob, Bekka and Alex, prepare to depart. Collect only essential gear from the house."

"Yes captain!" The four of them shouted, their Zoids variously crawling or stomping off.

"What about us?" Rick asked.

"That Whale Shark is heading back towards my home." Sel said. "I cannot take you with us."

"And it's carrying our friend." Rick said. "We've got a right to be there for her."

"I can't-" Sel began, but she was cut off.

"Don't give me that carpet, Sel." Sandra angrily shouted. "Vic is our friend. You know that if the situation was reversed, we'd do the same for you or any of your men." She glared at Sel. "Besides, there's one other possibility that we need to consider."

"Which is?" Sel asked.

"That Vic went voluntarily." She finished. "I searched her room. Wherever she went, she took at least two firearms with her; a large-caliber pistol and a sniper rifle. She wouldn't be carrying them with her as casual wear."

"Not even she's that nuts." Rick added. "Nuts, yes, but not 'carry a sniper rifle around for a trip down to the shops' nuts."

"So you're saying she could be a part of this?" Sel asked.

"Yep." Sandra finished.

"And you'll definitely need us." Rick replied. "We know her. We know how she thinks... Well, sort of. To a degree. But what I mean is, we know what she's like. And that'll be fore more help to you."

"And if she has been kidnapped., she's our friend and we have a right to be there." Sandra finished.

Sel looked at the pair of them. "Right. Get your stuff and get on that ship."

"Thanks, Sel." Rick said.

"Yeah..." Sandra muttered. "Thanks."

Sel sat back in her cockpit. If this were all true, if the Whale Shark was going where she thought it was, if Vic was a part of it... A part of her told her that whatever was going to happen, she should prepare for the worst. She was about to break one of the most important rules she was taught to live by. And, even after the dust had settled, her life as she knew it would be over.


	21. Going There

Whale King Dark Star

Over the Wastelands

1400 Hours

As soon as the front ramp of the Whale King closed, the ship had taken off. Sel opened a communicator link to the bridge. "What's out status, Alice?"

"We've just lifted off." She replied. "Navigation has laid in a course along the last known heading of that Whale Shark. Captain has ordered us to full pursuit speed, but we're not sure how long we can hold it, given their condition."

"And the Whale Shark?"

"We lost track of it, but it was still following the same heading." Alice replied. "Captain, I don't think it was aware of our presence."

"Really?"

"If they were, they would have sent the Zeekdobers after us to prevent pursuit, rather then you." She explained.

"I see." Sel replied. She climbed out of the cockpit of her Zoid. "And no sign of it since?"

"No, captain." Alice replied. "We are faster then it, however it has an hour's head start on us. At our current speed and heading, we should be able to get it on radar once we're out over the ocean, or perhaps the Skillaz ice fields." She paused. "Of course, if we find it there, then there's little doubt as to where it's going."

"And will they be able to see us?"

"Most likely." Alice replied. "The Whale Shark is an older design; it's hard to determine the exact configuration of sensors that it'd be carrying. However a standard Whale Shark would have a sensor fit similar to our own."

"And the Whale King, being so much larger, is more likely to be detected first." Sel noted.

"That's correct, Captain." Alice finished.

"Thanks. Let me know what happens." She closed the connection, then climbed out of her Zoid's cockpit. Behind it, the rest of her unit's Zoids were gathered inside the bay, with a few Extras. Sandra and Rick's Zoids were there; their blue armour sticking out amongst the grey and black of the bay. Behind them, their Gustav had Vic's Gunsniper on one of its trailers; Sandra had insisted on bringing it, stating that she refused to leave it behind with nobody to look after it.

"Well?" Matt asked as he climbed down from the Deadborder.

"We've lost them for the moment." Sel explained. 'Alice says we may catch sight of them in a few hours by then, we'll have a pretty good idea of where they're going. However, for the moment, I have to assume the worst."

"And if it goes there, you'll bring them along?" He began, and indicated towards Sandra and Rick who were checking their Zoids.

"Yes." Sel replied.

"You realize that Konstantinov will have a fit over this." Matt began. "And that he's not going to be the only one."

Sel crossed her arms. "Yes, but I don't have much of a choice. I bring them in, I break the most important rule in the book. Of course, if that Whale Shark is going there, then the blame will probably be traced back to me somehow, and I'm done for anyway." She shrugged. "This way, I have a chance of at least doing a little good before I die."

"Stop being so pessimistic" Matt replied.

"I'm being realistic." She stated. "You know the rules."

Before Matt could say anything else, Rick wandered up to the pair of them. He was carrying a backpack stuffed with what Sel hoped was clothes, but what she suspected was art supplies. "Hey, uh, not to be rude, but Sandra and I want to drop our stuff. Is there, any place we could leave it?"

"What Rick means is where can we sleep." Sandra shoved in.

"There's plenty of spare rooms in the pilot quarters." Sel replied. "We'll find some for you."

"Thanks." Rick said, then wandered off to where Bekka was climbing out of her Heldigunner. "Hey there."

"Hi Rick." She replied. "You okay? You spent a lot of time being chased."

"Ah, its nothing." Rick replied. "The three of us, we get chased all the time. I'm sorry we messed up your holiday. Next time, we'll try to have less Darths and evil gerwalk bandits attack us." He smiled.

"I'm sure you can find some way to make it up to me." She said, and winked at him.

"Could I see you for a minute, Bekka?" Sel shouted from over by her Darkhorn.

"Sure thing." She shouted back, then turned to Rick. "Gotta go. Boss is calling." She walked over to Sel, leaving Rick with Sandra to sort out their stuff. "What's up, boss?"

Sandra took her aside. "Bekka, I understand that both you and Rick are adults." (She used the word loosely) "And I can understand what sort of a relationship the pair of you have."

"Yes, but-" She began, but was cut off.

"I want you to remember that we are now in a crisis situation." Sel continued. "I need you always available and always ready for combat. There's no telling what may happen in a situation like this. I could need you at a moment's notice." She sighed. "For that reason, it would be best if you and him were to, well, not stay together."

Bekka nodded. "I understand." She muttered, resentfully.

"There is another matter." She said. "I haven't told anyone aside from you and Matt this. I'm telling you because it may affect you as well."

"Yes, captain."

"When we get back, and when all this is over, there are going to be a lot of questions asked. I will probably loose my command, and probably be court-martialed for my gross breach of conduct." Sel began. "If they find out about your relationship, you'll be the subject of a lot of unwanted attention."

"So I shouldn't tell anyone, right?" Bekka asked.

"Certainly you shouldn't drop it in casual conversation." Sel replied. "I know it sound cruel, Bekka, but you have to understand what's at risk here. Think of the thousands of lives. Think of all we've worked for. Think of our future."

"Our future." Bekka replied. She knew the mantra. "Yes, captain."

-----

Whale Shark Warlord

Over the Skilazz Ice Field

1730 hours

Compared to the Whale King, the Whale Shark was far, far smaller. About a quarter of the Whale King's overall length, it usually could only carry a pair of large Zoids. Its onboard facilities were similarly small. The crew and Zoid pilots were packed into cramped bunkrooms, while most rooms did multiple duties as briefing rooms, rec rooms and crew's mess. Compared to the Whale King's massive, multi-layered bridge, the Whale Shark's was very small, resembling the bridge of a small ship.

Desmond strode onto the bridge. His plain jumpsuit was replaced with an elaborate uniform, featuring a midnight-blue double-breasted jacket and a long black cape, and his missing eye was completely uncovered. He strode angrily over to the captain's chair. "Well, what is it?" He asked angrily.

Captain Henry Richards, the commander of the ship turned around in his chair. He was of average height and somewhat overweight, with small eyes and short, blond hair. Desmond knew he only had this job because of a lack of alternatives. If he had any more experienced ship commanders, Henry would be out. "We're being followed, commander."

"Followed?" He asked. "How can you tell?"

Henry got up, and directed him towards a radar station. The pair of them leaned on the rather nervous looking technician. "See this blip here?" He aid, pointing to a blip on the screen at the far edge. "We spotted it about ten minutes ago. It's on the same course and the same heading as us, and is moving faster."

"Can you tell what it is?" Desmond asked.

"It appears to be a Whale King, commander." The captain replied.

"Hostile?"

"Hard to tell. It hasn't done anything to us yet. If they were hostile, they could have launched flying Zoids to get us by now." He said. "Of course, they may not have any flyers of their own."

"I see." Desmond replied. "And we're unarmed."

"Although, as you can see, they've followed us all the way out here over the ice fields. So they're either following us, or they're heading into the Dark Continent for some other reason. Although I don't want to take the risk."

"Neither do I." Desmond replied. "As soon as we're over the Dark Continent proper, drop our altitude considerably. Maintain our course as best you can, but try to stay low to the ground and mask us. A Whale King can't do that, so we should be able to loose them that way."

"Yes commander."

He turned and left. "And tell me if there's any change in its status." He shouted as he left.

"Yes commander."

"And do not fail me." Desmond added as he was about to leave. "I have very little tolerance for failure."

-----

Sandra found the Dark Star's briefing room to be interesting. It was, like everything else on the ship, grey. The colour of her and Rick's clothes really stood out against everything else, while the greys of the Crew's uniforms blended in rather well. The thing that struck her the most, however, was its size. It was designed to hold the full compliment of the ship's Zoid pilots. With only six of them, the room seemed to be empty. Rick putting his feet up on the seat in front of him hadn't helped any.

Since they'd been on board, they'd been shuttled off to their quarters. They'd been given a fair-sized bunkroom that was clearly designed to hold more people if needed. Sel had instructed the pair of them to wait there for further instructions. Sandra could tell that she was still far from happy with having the pair of them onboard the ship, but she also knew that they had a right to be here. She'd gone to clean herself up, while Rick had pulled out his sketchpad and begun working furiously.

Sel entered the room. Sandra was amazed at the transformation she'd undergone; her casual wear (All tattered clothes pinched from Sandra's wardrobe) was gone, replaced with a sharp, grey and crimson uniform and a peaked hat. She wore a stern expression on her face, a look Sandra hadn't seen from her. Is this what she always looks like? She wondered. It matches the mood of the decor.

"Before I begin, I just need to ask something." She indicated towards Rick and Sandra. "From here on in, everything that happens onboard this ship should be considered classified as military secrets. I know I have no authority over the pair of you, but I would ask that you don't discuss this with anyone."

They both nodded. "Understood." Sandra replied.

"Thank you." She turned back to the front of the room. "Fifteen minutes ago, radar detected a ship ahead of us, matching our altitude and heading. We have since identified it as the Whale Shark we have been pursuing." The projector activated, showing a map of the ice fields, with the positions of the two ships. "We are still in pursuit, and gaining ground. We should intercept it over the Dark Continent win about an hour." The map traced the paths of the two ships, the pair of them meeting over the continent.

"What is the Whale Shark's projected course, captain?" Matt asked.

The map zoomed out, tracing the path of the Whale Shark over the Dark Continent. "As you can see, they are heading north by north east. Maintaining this course, they will eventually arc over the pole and come down the other side." The path then branched at one point, and traced a line across the length of the continent, heading to its far west end before stopping abruptly. "However, I suspect this is their true course."

"What's there?" Rick whispered to Sandra. "It's the arse end of the continent."

"I suspect that's where they come from." Sandra replied. "Looking at its position, its no wonder they've remained hidden this long. There's probably not a living soul within a thousand kilometers of there."

"Remote." Rick replied. "On the other hand, it'd make for a nice, quiet locale for a studio."

"Sure, if you dig barren rock."

Sel glared at them, and continued. "Our current plan is to catch up with them and force the ship down." The map was replaced with a rotating wireframe model of the Whale Shark. "The Whale shark is unarmed; even in our damaged state we've got more weaponry."

"What if they launch a Zoid at us?" Bekka asked.

"Most Whale Sharks aren't equipped for mid air launches." Sel replied. "Even then, we should be able to handle most airborne threats."

"So how many Zoids is it carrying?" Alex asked.

"The Whale Shark's capacity is far smaller then the Whale King's. Its normal capacity is for four medium-sized zoids, like Command Wolves." Sel explained. "However, it could carry up to eight if they were attack Zoids. With seven reasonably powerful Zoids, we should be able to handle anything they have on board. Of course, there's also the possibility that the Zeekdobers we saw were from the ship, in which case its likely empty of Zoids."

Before anyone could say anything else, a siren sounded throughout the ship. "What's that?" Rick shouted

"I have no idea!" Bekka shouted back. "Captain?"

"Give me a minute." Sel replied, then picked up her communicator. "Alice, its Sel here. What the hell is going on up there?"

"I'm just checking now, captain." Alice replied. "Hold on." There was a minute of tense silence. "Captain, engineering has reported a crack in the cooling system for the main engines. Its likely a result of the damage we suffered during the attack."

"What's the status?"

"They're cutting back power to the engines to prevent them from overheating." She replied. "Hold on." Alice went for a minute, then came back. "Engineering reports that we can hold at half speed while they affect repairs. However, if the damage is too serious, we may have to put down."

Sel snarled angrily. "Great. Thanks, Alice. And the Whale Shark?"

"Its still there but we're beginning to fall behind."

"Damn." Sel muttered.

"Captain?"

"Nothing. Thank you, Alice. Keep us up to date."

"Yes captain." She finished.

Sel hit a button beside the door, silencing the alarm. "We've had a problem with the engines. For now, we have to reduce our speed to affect repairs. This means that, for the moment, we are going to loose contact with the Whale shark." Sandra looked around the room. Sel's pilots clearly looked disappointed, possibly even apprehensive at the news. "For now, I ask if you could all return to stand-by. I'll let you know when you're needed."

The pilots stood and filed out of the room. Sandra saw Rick dart off down the hall to catch up with Bekka, who was moving off in the other direction. She slowly walked behind them, expecting the worst.

"Hey, uh..." Rick began. "I was wondering if, since you're on standby alert but not actually in combat as yet, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out or play a game of pool or something?"

"Sorry, Rick, I'm busy." She replied and walked off, leaving him standing there.

Sandra waited a minute before walking up to him. "You okay there?"

"She just dumped me." He muttered.

"It's not your fault." Sandra replied. "Most armies have rules about fraternisation between troops. I suspect that since you and her are serving on the same ship, that counts." She put her hand on his shoulder. "Besides, right now she needs to be in top form. She probably can't afford to spend her time hanging out with you or the like."

"It seems a little harsh to me." Rick muttered.

"Yeah, well, thing you got to remember about these guys is that right now they're running the risk of some tool barge into their home and do unspeakableness to it." Sandra said. "It happened to them once before and they're stuffed if they're going to let it happen again."

"I guess." Rick replied. "I suppose I'm just afraid of getting dumped." He paused. "Again."

"Yeah, well, it happens to everyone." Sandra said. "You get over it. Come on. Let's find something to break to pass the time."

The two of them walked off into the ship. "Hey, Sandra?" Rick asked. "Is it just me, or is it very quiet of late?"

Sandra looked around. "It's not just you, Rick. It's not just you."

-----

Kingswood Army Base

The Vinterlands

John Shepherd knocked at the colonel's door, and awaited the reply before entering. As he walked into the office, Pie swung around from his usual place by the window, holding a gold-plated revolver in one hand, a cloth in the other. "Ah, there you are, John." He said, grinning in a worryingly cheery way. "What's the news?"

"I've received a communiqué from Captain Desmond." John replied. "He says that he has recruited the agent and is presently en route to the objective."

"Excellent! Excellent!" Pie replied, grinning.

"He also regrets to inform you that he'll take longer to reach his objective then he originally estimated." John replied, reading off the message. "He says that he has to follow a different, more elusive path as there is a possibility that he may be pursued. However, he says that he is still on target. As agreed beforehand, he will contact you when he is ready to go."

"Very good." Pie said, gleefully. "John, order all troops to mobilise. I want our ships airborne and en-route to the objective in one hour."

"Yes sir!" John replied.

"Oh, and get that pilot from Kandrak's unit, what was his name?"

"Zell, sir."

"Give Zell a place on the mission, as well as his Zoid. Tell him that it's his opportunity to get his revenge against those who killed his comrades." Pie said. "He's a good man, John. He deserves this. Oh and tell Anton to have my Zoid loaded on to the lead ship."

"Yes, sir." John replied.

"Very good. Dismissed."

John turned to leave. Behind him, the colonel continued to polish his gun, before speaking. "This is a great day, John. A great day. We will show them. We will show them all."

-----

Whale Shark Warlord

Over the Dark Continent

2030 hours

Outside the ship, it was raining and blowing a gale. The ship itself was crawling along, hiding in canyons and valleys as it traveled, trying to remain as invisible as possible to any pursuers. This had reduced its progress to a snails pace, as navigating at low altitude at night in a storm was far from easy.

Inside it, Vic was lying on her bunk, her head drooped over one side, staring at the opposite wall. She was bored. She'd been spending the last few hours driving the other person who she shared the bunkroom nuts. It was fun, but she'd had to leave. So Vic was deprived of anything to do, and was thus bored.

Amelia was an easy person to drive insane. She was blonde, with a mass of puffed-up hair and big gormless blue eyes. She was shallow, superficial, vain and had the apparent IQ of a tennis shoe, which meant that it was easy to do things that annoyed her. And as Vic figured she was vital to whatever this operation was, the worst they could do was give her a harsh talking to. It had crossed her mind what someone like Amelia was doing in a supposed military intelligence operation. She figured that she was either somebody's piece of fluff and thus harmless, or just pretending to be a dope and thus deadly ands liable to kill Vic dead as soon as her usefulness was at an end. Still, it would be fun finding out.

Time for a little fun. Amelia had closed the door "for security reasons". The door was controlled with a security swipe card. A swipe card just like the one she had stole from Amelia's stuff while going through it in an effort to drive her mad. (Unballing all her socks and then balling them up as mismatched pairs had been another favorite of hers). She leaped down from the bed, then sidled up to the door, casually swiping the card behind her back. It swung open, and she leaped out into the hallway. Time for some fun.

-----

In the ship's small briefing room, Emil was waiting. His second in command, Derrick Hallis, had been here on time as he had expected. However, his third, Amelia, Snow, was strangely absent. It was very unlike her to be late. He checked his watch again. He couldn't start the briefing without her. Damn it.

She entered the room, an angry look on her face. "I'm so sorry commander." She began. "But that little troll has been making my life hellish! I could wring her filthy little neck that..."

"Who?" Emil glared at her.

"Um..." She turned to face him, wilting under his glare.

"Who?" He repeated.

"Victoria Hagen." She stammered out.

"All in good time. For now, if you could kindly take your seat." She cringed, and walked towards her seat as quietly as possible. She'd seen what happened when you got Desmond angry. "Thank you."

There was a moment of silence as he looked at the pair of them before he began. "This is a great opportunity for us, and for our cause. As you know, I undertook this operation in my guise as a military intelligence officer. However, I have realised how we can turn this to our advantage."

A map of the Dark Continent appeared from a projector built into the floor. "Many believe the continent to be uninhabited. As I recently discovered, this is not the case." The projector zoomed in on the far western end of the continent, then in again on one particular canyon, with a raised mesa at its far end. "Here. Concealed within this valley is a secret. A lost civilization, hidden away from the outside world. Colonel Pie asked me, in my military intelligence role, to infiltrate this place. My task was to gather intelligence on them, while laying the groundwork for an invasion by colonel Pie's forces."

"However, I have other plans." He said. "We will infiltrate them. However, we will not destabilise them. We will reveal ourselves to them and warn them to Pie's imminent invasion." Derrick and Amelia exchanged glances. "In fact, we will endeavor to become their allies, and we shall help them deal with Pie as a way of proving our trustworthiness."

"But why, sir?" Amelia asked. "What happened to the plan?"

"That was a mere convenience." He continued. "From the Quentin Journal, I've ascertained that these people are somewhat withdraw bordering on paranoid. What I can do is assure them that the information about their existence will never be revealed. I'm sure they would see us favorably in return. In time, I'm sure that they could see that they and us have a lot in common. We could continue to ensure their secrecy and they could work with us."

"And what do we get from this?" Derrick asked.

"Simple. As you know, our Zoid army is somewhat limited. While we have a few powerful individual units, like my God Kaiser, the majority are relatively weak, small units. Something like fifty percent of our army is still made up of Attack Zoids, despite our best efforts. These people boast an army of Deadborders, Darkhorns, Heldigunners and Reddlers. Think what we could do with those at our disposal."

"And Hagen?" Amelia asked.

"She's a form of insurance policy." He replied.

"Insurance?"

"The Zoids piloted by these people use a cybernetic neural interface system to directly connect the Zoid to the pilot's brain." He explained. "However, its unclear if their Zoids can be piloted by normal, unmodified pilots. So, we need a pilot equipped with the system as a form of insurance policy; someone we can use to pilot a Zoid if it goes bad. Hagen is to fill that role. And if it turns out that they can be piloted by a normal pilot, well..." He glanced at Amelia. "Then she's of no use to us."

"So you plan to slab her in a Deadborder as a worst case scenario?" Derrick asked.

"There is something else." He said. "The Quentin Journal also contained a fragmentary extract from an older-still journal. It said something about a monster or beast, called 'blood-red death.' Pie was convinced that this was some sort of powerful Zoid, although I, for one am unconvinced." He looked at the pair of them. "However, if it does exist, having someone who can pilot it would be useful."

-----

"So I'm disposable." Vic muttered to herself. She'd found an open door and decided to stand next to it, hoping to find something interesting. It had been rather illuminating. Deciding she'd heard enough, she walked back to her quarters, thinking about what she'd heard. The lost civilisation Desmond was talking about had to be the city Sel had told Sandra about. Unless there were two lost cities in the Dark Continent, both using Darkhorns, Deadborders and Heldigunenrs. Unlikely, but you never know.

She'd figured she was expendable form the start. She didn't believe what Desmond had said about the million. However he'd gotten her curiosity aroused, which was good enough. Clearly Amelia was the designated dispose. She'd have to work on driving her mad some more. Mad people made for interesting disposals.

She swiped the card through the door and stepped into the room. Shadding most of her gear (And hiding the card under her pillow) she climbed into her bunk. Blood Read Death? She ran the idea through her head. Sounded fun. Of course, it probably didn't exist. But if it did, it could be fun. Anything with a name like blood red death had to be. She'd have to see what it was.

She rolled over and thought about it some more, ignoring the sound of Amelia pounding on the door and shouting at her to open it.

-----

Whale Shark Warlord

Position Unknown

0830 Hours

Desmond strode angrily onto the bridge. He'd been in the middle of breakfast (Croissants, with coffee) when he had been called to the bridge. Amelia was with him, looking terrible. She had dark bags under he eyes, and her puff-ball hair looked more like a pile of straw. She'd refused to comment. "Well?" He said, striding over to the captain's seat. "This had better be important."

"It is." Henry replied. "Take a look around"

He looked around the bridge. At first, nothing seemed out of place, then he realised what it was. Outside, through the windows, was nothing but an empty, dull grey sky. "It's fog." Desmond replied. "So?"

"It's not your average fog." Henry replied. "You know of the ores found on the Dark Continent, right?"

Desmond nodded. "The stuff that the power systems on the Dark Zoids use, right?"

"Correct." Henry said. "What we have here is a storm, generated by that stuff messing with the weather. It happens here. Its one of the many, many reasons why people don't come here often."

"And your point?"

"This fog, and I suspect the storm behind it, is laced with that stuff, usually in the form of dust." He explained. "The problem is that the stuff messes with electrical systems. Right now, we've lost all our radar, all our sensors, all our navigation aids. We can't tell where we are. Right now, there could be a mountain in front of us and we'd never know it."

"Can we press on?" Desmond asked. "Can we keep going through this?"

"Like this, we can't" Henry replied. "If there was anything in the way, we wouldn't know about it until we hit it."

"Fine. Take her up to three thousand meters."

"Commander, if we fly though this, we won't be able to see where we are!" Henry shouted.

"And neither will our pursuers." Desmond replied. 'Stealth is of the utmost importance to this mission, Captain. I want to avoid contact at all costs." Desmond replied. "And don't bother me again unless it's really important." He turned and left.

"Really important my arse." Henry muttered. "We'll see who's the wise guy when we get a mountain in the face."

-----

Amelia returned to her quarters, only to find that they were a mess. For some reason, however, she wasn't surprised. There were piles of clothes scattered across the floor, along with the odd sheet, an assortment of camping gear, several fashion magazines and the plates from breakfast. Vic was lying on her bunk, starring at the ceiling. Amelia had a sudden urge to kill, but kept it under control.

Vic turned to look at her. "Where'd you go? I got so lonely here without you."

"Important meeting." Amelia replied as she began to pick up her stuff.

"Why?"

"Because the commander needed to seed me about something."

"Why?"

"Because it's important to the mission."

"Why?"

"Oh never mind!" She shouted.

"Okay." Vic said. "So are we there yet?"

"No."

"Why?"

She stopped. Remember your orders. Remember your orders. "Because we've been delayed."

"Why?"

"Because of bad weather." Twitch.

"Why?"

"Because we can't see where we're going and might end up smashed into a mountain!" She shouted.

There was a long pause as the pair of them, glared at each other. Finally, Vic spoke. "Why?"

"AAAACK!" Amelia screamed. She threw the clothes she had picked up every where, and then stormed out, slamming the door shut behind her.

Vic lay on her bunk, and grinned. It was working. Amelia had been driven from the room and was unlikely to come back for several hours. Plenty of time to look around. She pulled out her stolen security card. Good thing that Amelia was apparently one of the bananas in charge around here, she thought. Her card probably had access to just about everything.

She slipped out into the hallway. Her first destination, she decided, should be the Zoid bay. Whatever was in there might give her a good idea of what they were up to. Or at the very least, it may be rather breakable, which could also be fun. Descending down a set of stairs, she reached a gantry that overlooked the Zoid bay, and took a look over the bay itself.

Below her was a blue and silver Gustav, with four trailers attached. Each of the trailers was loaded down, and covered with tarpaulins. Interesting. Form here, she couldn't see what thay had on their backs, but she was willing to take a bet that it had something to do with all the soldiers camped out on the floor of the bay. The Sandspeeder Desmond had driven her and himself to the ship on was stored on one side of the bay, kept out of the way.

She slowly descended to the floor of the bay. She'd need to check this out further.

-----

Henry leaned over the radar tech's seat, glaring into the monitor. "Well?" The bridge was quiet and dull, lit only by the glow of radar scopes and monitors.

"I'm not sure." The tech replied. "We've got something. Contact is very intermittent, however. Presumably that's caused by the storm."

"So no idea what it was?"

"No sir." The tech replied.

"You don't think it was that Whale king from earlier?"

"Not sure." The tech replied. "It's ahead of us, while that other one was behind us. However, at the reduced speed we've been at-"

"Hold on" Henry cut him off.

"Captain?"

"Shh." He hissed. There was a long pause. "Did you hear something?"

"No captain." He replied. Then he heard it. A low noise, like a dog's whine only longer, and deeper. "What's..."

"Shh." They heard it again. It sounded louder. "What is it... I've heard it before..."

"Uh, captain?" Another technician reported.

"What is it?"

"There's something ahead..."

He looked up at the front viewscreen. A blob of the grey sky in front of them was darker, as if there was something behind it. As he watched, it became bigger, the main blob sprouting smaller blobs, who's shape and placement suggested wings or fins. As they watched, details became apparent. A grey, rectangular body, with a green covering on the top, and two small wings to the sides...

"WHALE KING!" Henry shouted. "Hard starboard! Now!"

The entire ship lurched to the right as it turned away from the approaching Whale King, the bridge crew holding on for dear life. As they turned, they could see the Whale king continuing on its way, apparently unaware of their presence. They watched as the distance between them and it decreased, the ship fading into the distance and then vanishing into the fog.

"That was close." He said, leaning on the back of his chair.

"Captain!" The tech shouted again. "Mountain!"

"What?" Henry shouted, then looked out the front window. A mountain was looming out of the fog, occupying the right half of the screen. "Hard port! Now!"

The Whale Shark lurched again, throwing the crew across the bridge. Henry winced at the thought of what must be happening to everyone else on board the ship. The mountain gradually vanished form the viewscreen as they pulled away. For a good few minutes, there was silence as the ship continued on its way. Don't you dare, Henry thought, glaring at the tech. Don't you dare.

"Captain!" He shouted. "Unidentified menacing topographical feature!"

He wanted to say something, but he couldn't. Instead, he saw the ridge emerging out of the fog. "Up!" He shouted. "Take her up now! Full emergency power!" The Whale Shark rose into the sky, passing over the ridge, and continued to climb. "Keep going, damn it!"

"Captain, what about the commander's orders?" A technician asked.

"Stuff the commander." Henry replied. "I don't want to end up with a mountain in the face." He looked around the bridge. The crew seemed to be in agreement with him. "Take us up to ten thousand meters, more if you have to. Just so long as we're out of this damned fog."

-----

Vic braced herself on the stairs as the whole ship rocked, first to one side, then another. In the bay, the soldiers scurried around securing equipment and making sure the Gustav didn't slip. Several crates came loose from one of the trailers, shattering against the bay walls, while the tarpaulin flapped around loose. She slipped in amongst the mass of running and shouting troopers, one more unnoticed body in the middle of the chaos.

Ducking between soldiers, she scurried over to the shattered crate. Its contents were scattered around the bay, wrapped in bubble-wrap packaging. She picked one up. Hmm, size and mass were right, she thought. Now for the contents. She opened the package. Inside was an assault rifle, a rather unusual model with a short barrel, no stock and bulky body. The clip wasn't inserted, but the gap at the base of the rifle suggested a large one.

She recognised the model; the XS 10mm Submachine gun. Fantastic rate of fire combined with a large clip, terrible accuracy and a tendency to kick like an Ouridos. There was only one group that used it widely that she knew of, and that was a rather unsavory terrorist orgasnisation with a bent on world conquest and breaking things. Fun. She checked one of the boxes still on the back of the Gustav, but no longer under the tarp. Explosives. Another one had grenades. Yeah, she could tell what these people were up to. She'd fallen in with a bad crowd.

This promised to be very interesting, she thought to herself as she snuck back to her quarters. Then she giggled.

-----

Sandra and Rick sat dejectedly in their quarters. Since the Dark Star's engine failure last night, it had dropped behind the Whale Shark they were tailing. Come the next morning, the engines had been repaired, but the target was nowhere in sight. They'd lost it. Sel had redirected the ship to travel at maximum available speed back to what Sandra assumed was their home. They'd filed to stop the Whale Shark form reaching its objective. Now all they could do is warn them.

Rick had been idly watching the window for the last few hours, randomly scribbling on his pad. Sandra could tell form the way that he was acting that he was at least a bit upset. She couldn't blame him. He'd been dumped big time by military regulations. It was hard on anyone. She was busy staring at the walls, considering her options. She had no idea what she and Rick were getting themselves into. Some of the things Sel had said suggested that these people weren't that inviting towards strangers. She and Rick, she figured, were about as strange as they came.

"Hey, will ya look at that?" Rick said, looking out the window. Sandra got up, and peered over his shoulder.

"What is it?" She asked, then she saw it. A huge grey shape emerged from the clouds below, climbing to draw parallel with them. It was another Whale King, the near twin of the one they were on. Damage aside, the only difference she could see between the two was the huge black five-pointed star painted on the side of the second ship. "Wow." It was all she could think to say. She'd never seen a whale king in flight like this before. She'd seen them as blobs in the sky from the ground, but never in the sky next to her.

"Who do you think it is?" RIck asked.

"I suspect it might be Sel's friends." Sandra replied.

"You don't think we're near their home?"

"I wouldn't have a clue, Rick." She replied. "I wouldn't have a clue."

-----

Sel sat back in her chair in her office, staring at the monitor. A light on it blinked, indicated an incoming transmission. She'd been watching it for a minute, considering the options. Well, no point in putting off the inevitable, she thought. She pressed a button on the panel, switching on the screen.

A face appeared on the screen. He was in his early forties, with a well-trimmed goatee bearded and, she suspected, a shaved head. He wore a captain's uniform, complete with hat. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Captain Yanger." She began.

"I understand." He replied. "I wasn't expecting to see you or your ship around here, captain. Especially without contacting anyone first."

"These are, well, unusual circumstances." She replied. "The ship was damaged in an attack and we lost our long-range communications. We have been unable to make contact with home since then."

"I noticed." He replied. Sel realized that he was looking at the damaged side of the ship. "So may I ask what you're doing here?"

Here it goes, Sel. said. This is not going to go down well. "We are in pursuit of a Whale Shark. It left the Badlands yesterday afternoon, and was last sighted over the Dark Continent. We suspect that it may be headed..." she trailed off. "There."

"And you couldn't warn us in advance?" He finished.

"No communications." Sel replied. "We couldn't have warned them if we'd wanted to."

"So you've returned to warn us of a possible attack?" He asked. "One Whale Shark couldn't hold enough Zoids to even be a minor threat."

"It's possible that these people are attempting to infiltrate us, not attack us head on." Sel said. "We know that there's a mercenary on board the ship who would be well suited to an infiltration operation."

"And how do you know this?" He asked. "Know them on a first name basis?"

Sel sighed. This was it. The point where she threw it all away for a greater cause. "I think there's something you should know..." she began.

-----

Rick and Sandra watched as the second Whale King turned away from them, curving around so it was heading in the opposite direction. It had been with them for over an hour now, traveling with them. Ahead of them, the sun was beginning to dip below the cloud layer. "So where's he off to?" Rick asked.

"I'm more worried about where we're going." Sandra replied. "For some reason, I've got a bad feeling about all of this."

"You're just pessimistic." Rick replied. "You always assume that the worst will happen."

"And when have I ever been wrong?" Sandra said. Rick looked thoughtful for a moment, and then was ready to reply, but she cut him off. "No, don't answer that, Rick. I know what you're going to say."

"Well, you did ask." He said.

As they watched, the cloud layer slowly began to rise towards them. Within a minute, the entire window was enveloped in grey. "Great." Sandra muttered. "Now the outside matches the inside. Hey, Rick!" She turned to him. "Why don't we get some grey clothes of our own. That way we can blend in some more."

"Ha ha." He replied. They sat in silence for a minute. "What do you think Vic's up to?"

"No idea." Sandra said.

"You don't think she went voluntarily, do you?"

She shrugged. "Who can tell with someone like her? I'm sure she knows what she's doing." She smiled. "If anything, I'm more worried about whoever she's traveling with."

-----

Amelia frantically unballed the socks. "Matching pair, matching pair... come on... oh please..." A pair of socks, one black, one white, presented themselves. "Aaaaagh! I don't believe it! What do I have to do to get a matching pair of socks around here?"

-----

The Whale King broke though the cloud layer. Below them, the Dark Continent stretched out all the way to the horizon, a mess of peaks and canyons. All were a universal dull grey colour, some dusted lightly with snow. Save for the odd band of dull red or lighter grey rock, it was colourless. The sky above remained grey and overcast, making the terrain below seem even more lifeless. As the ship dropped closer to the ground, they could make out more detail, picking out individual valleys or canyons.

"Hey, what's that?" Sandra asked. The ship had changed course slightly, and was heading towards a valley, still descending as if it was going to enter it. Rick pressed his face to the window, twisting around to try and see what was going on ahead of the ship. "Well?"

"It looks like..." He began. "There's a valley, and a mesa thing at the end of it. There's..." He trailed off. 'I can't quite see it, but I swear there's a door at the end of it. A huge ferking Whale King-sized door."

"A what?" She asked.

"Yeah." He said. "Sandra? We're going there."


	22. Are we There yet?

Whale King Dark Star

Dark Continent

1730 hours

Sandra and Rick watched from their window seat as the Whale King proceeded through the valley. Ahead of them, the mountain or mesa or whatever it was loomed up, a pair of massive doors opening in its front. The Whale King proceeded on its course, slowly slipping through the doors and into the mountain itself. The pair of them gawked at the wall of blank rock they passed, then were taken back when they saw what lay beyond.

It was a city. A city inside the mountain. A street grid with high-rise office that wouldn't have looked out of place in the UZS or the Empire, if not for the fact that it was completely underground. Looking up, they could see a rock ceiling, covered with grids of equipment and massive lights. Many of them, Sandra noted, were dulled or simply missing, giving the city a dark, gloomy look.

"It's a city." Rick muttered. "A ferking underground city."

"Look at that." Sandra said, pointing at a building as they passed. Rick peered at it, and noted a massive hole blown in one side. Looking around, he could see other buildings were damaged, clearly from weapons fire. "What do you think happened here?" She asked.

"No idea." Rick said. "I don't think there's anyone at home. None of these buildings look inhabited and I can't say I've seen anyone."

"So where are they?" Sandra asked.

Before he could say anything, there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it!" Rick shouted as he leaped up and ran over to it. Opening the door, he saw Sel standing there, wearing her full uniform, complete with cap.

"We'll be landing in a couple of minutes." She said. "I'll need the pair of you to come with be."

"Right." Sandra said, behind him. "C'mon, Rick, let's get our stuff together."

A minute later, the pair of them joined Sel in the hallway. Both of them were carrying what few belongings that they'd bought with them, stuffed into a pair of tattered backpacks. "Lead the way." Rick said.

"Thanks." Sel replied. "I hope you two understand that from here on in, I cannot say for certain what happens to you two. With any luck, there will be some understanding people at the other end will realise why I've bought you hear and the risk we're currently facing."

"Hey, what's life without a little risk?" Rick asked. "I'm sure it'll all be cool."

"Besides, we're used to throwing ourselves into stupidly dangerous situations with no prior thought." Sandra added. "It's almost a hobby of ours."

The three of them proceeded to a passenger hatch in the side of the ship, where they were joined by the rest of Sel's pilots. Sandra noted that both Bekka and Alex were wearing their full uniforms, instead of the cut down versions she'd seen them in so far, but didn't say anything. Rick approached Bekka, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Bekka-" He began, but she cut him off.

"Later, Rick." She said, removing his hand.

"But..."

"Military rules, Rick." Sandra said. "I know it sucks, but you've got to remember that we're in their house no so we have to play by their rules. No running with scissors, no food in the bedrooms and no nookie with other soldiers."

"Ah, tool." He said.

"You said tool."

"Yeah..." He started at Bekka ahead of him. "Maybe I did."

The door opened, a landing ramp extending out from it down to the hanger floor. The others proceeded down, then Rick and Sandra. Outside as, well, Rick thought it was anything but what he'd expected. They were inside what could only be described as a huge hanger bay. There was another grey Whale King across from where they were, and he was certain he could see another one beyond that. Above them the some bare rock was visible, but it was obscured by lights, cranes, pipes, tubes, vents and the like.

"Looks like someone's glad to see us." Sandra muttered from behind him. Looking back down at the ground, he saw what she meant. Ahead of them was a half-dozen troops. Each of them wore a grey and white urban camouflage uniform, padded vest and a helmet with a fold down riot shield, and a menacing looking submachine gun. Behind them was another pair of people who caught his attention for different reasons.

The first was a tall man in a uniform similar to Sel's. He had a stern, angular looking face and long blond hair tied into a ponytail. He looked decidedly unhappy at something, probably him and Sandra. He had cold-looking blue grey eyes and a somewhat snobbish, almost aristocratic air to him that Rick seemed to instantly dislike. Next to him was a red-haired woman who he could only describe as "Storm Sworder Pilot Material." She was as tall as Sandra, and nearly equal of the man next to her, with intense green eyes. She was wearing the same uniform, and seemed to be studying him and Sandra intently.

Sandra approached the blond man and saluted. "Captain Magyari reporting, sir."

He saluted back, spoke. "Care to explain this, captain?" Looking around, Rick could see that He, Sandra and the rest of Sel's pilots were now surrounded by the troops.

"Why is it nobody's ever glad to see us?" Sandra muttered.

"Yes sir." She replied. "These two-" She indicated to Rick and Sandra "-are here to assist us in a matter that may threaten the security, and very existence, of all of us." She said.

"Do explain." The Redhead said.

"We believe that an external organisation is attempting to infiltrate us." Sel explained. "The two pilots I bought with me are associates of one of the people we believe to be involved in this infiltration. They have come here of their own free will, sir."

"I see." The blond man replied. "Captain, you and your men had better come with us. And bring those two as well"

-----

The Whale Shark had put down in a box canyon nearly a hundred kilometers away from its objective. Vic had been escorted by Desmond and Amelia (Who had glared angrily at her throughout) and escorted down to the hanger bay. She was a little put out by this; she'd been working on her latest plan to drive Amelia nuts by re-threading the laces on her boots. You had to get your laughs somewhere. It turned out that the three of them were shipping out with the other soldiers. The three of them, and the troops, had bordered one of the Gustav's trailers had been modified to act as a troop carrier.

The troops, she noted, weren't going to great lengths to conceal their identity. While they didn't have their logos, they'd all donned a rather distinctive looking uniform consisting of black body armour and a one-way faceplate. And they all had the XS Submachineguns. Clearly they were expecting trouble. This could be fun, she thought. She'd sat down facing Amelia, who was insisting on glaring at her. Clearly all her plans to drive Amelia mad were working. She grinned which did cause Amelia to loose her concentration and flinch a bit. She'd never understood why people flinched when she grinned. Ah well. Amelia and Emil, she noted, were wearing plain grey jumpsuits instead of armoured suits. Nobody had told her what to wear or bring, so she'd gone for her regular cammo fatigues, goggles and sniper rifle.

Derrik left the bay first, riding on the Sandspeeder as a forward scout, with the Gustav crawling along behind it. After an hour, the Gustav halted. Emil had given Derrick orders to scout ahead, and to report back when he'd found some nebulously named objective. Clearly Desmond wanted to get this operation underway as soon as possible, she thought. Otherwise he could have waited in the ship. Or he could just be wanting to see what happens if you leave a lot of armed men with nothing to do for a while. Desmond himself had left the troop compartment, presumably to speak to the Gustav pilot about something.

She poked the trooper sitting next to her. "Hey." She said. He didn't say a thing, so she poked him again. "Hey." Nope. No answer. Boring. Only one thing to do. She poked him again. "Hey."

The soldier turned to her. "What?" He asked.

She tried to do her best "Cute and innocent" look, which she knew never worked for some reason (She'd always wondered why) while leaning on the rifle case. "Ever been to the Dark Continent before."

"No." He replied, then turned away.

She poked him again. "So where are you from?" He grunted noncommittally, so she poked him again. The soldier got up, walked around the room and sat on a different seat. "You're no fun." She muttered.

She began to slide towards the next soldier, but Amelia sat down next to her, cutting her off. "Don't." She said.

"Why?"

"Just..." Amelia began. "Just sit still and be quiet."

"Awwww..."

"Look, you may be vital to this operation, but don't think you're not irreplaceable." She snarled. "Just remember that there are plenty of others who would willingly take your place."

"But they're not here, are they?" Vic replied. "You're in the middle of nowhere. You can't replace me in a hurry."

Amelia turned away in a huff. Vic sat back and grinned for a minute or two. Then she poked Amelia.

"What?!" She shouted.

"Ever feel awkward being the only girl around?" She asked.

"Shut up."

She sidled on up to Amelia so she was whispering in her ear. "Or is that why you wear the padded bra and the lacy g-strings?"

Amelia stood up and shouted. "How the hell did you about my underwear? Will you just shut up you horrible little woman!" Then she stopped, when she realised that everyone in the passenger section was staring at her. It was dead quiet, nobody saying a word. Vic grinned her favorite grin, the manic toothy one that even Sandra couldn't look at straight.

She sat, her face bright red. "There, there." Vic said, as she patted Amelia on the back.

-----

Sandra had been a cop long enough to know this set up. The place was different and the uniforms were different, but she and Rick were definitely sitting in the local equivalent of a Police station. She and Rick had been bought here so they could be "asked some questions" so the local authorities could "better understand the situation." Translation: They'd been bought down to the nick for some questioning. Sandra had considered trying to get a brief, but then realised that it was pointless.

So she and Rick had been sitting on a pair of rock-hard seats, staring at the ceiling and giving random passing officers names. The Sergeant behind the desk was now called Bob. A young, blonde trooper who they'd seen go past a couple of times was now Polly, and a rather haggard-looking middle-aged officer was Jim. She'd also noticed that people seemed to glance at them a lot, as if there was something really, really weird about them. It confirmed her suspicion that they didn't get visitors around here a lot. "How about him?" She asked Rick, who was staring at the ceiling.

"Who?" He asked. She pointed out a male officer with short black hair who was talking to 'Polly'. "Um... he looks like a Dave to me."

"Dave it is." Sandra said.

A door opened, the red-haired officer from before entering and walking over to the pair of them. "Sorry to keep you both waiting." She said. "Sandra Blackmore?" She looked at her.

"Yeah, that's me." She replied, still staring at the ceiling. Rick, she noted, was staring at the woman. He was practically dribbling.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." The woman continued. "If you wouldn't mind coming with me."

"Right, might as well." Sandra said, standing. "I know I'm not getting out of here any other way."

"What about me?" Rick asked.

"We'll need to speak to you later." She replied. "For the moment, could you please wait here?"

"Uh, sure." He said. Sandra suspected that if she'd asked him to run naked down main street with a live weasel strapped to his date, he would have.

The pair of them proceeded to a small, featureless room that was furnished only with a table and two sets of seats. She instantly recognised it as an interview room; she'd seen plenty of these before, but never from this side of it. The blond man from before was sitting in one of the chairs. Great, she thought. I wonder who's the good cop and who's the bad cop. She took a seat without being directed to do such. She knew the drill.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Sandra." The Redhead began. "This is major Jean De Lyon, and I'm captain Rose O'Bannon. We'd like to ask you a couple of questions about this associate of yours miss..." She checked her notes. "Victoria Hagen."

Victoria? She'd never heard her called that before. "Sure. Fire away."

"How would you describe your relationship to this person?" Jean began.

"Relationship?" Sandra was taken aback. "Well, we work together. We're friends, I suppose. We live in the same house, throw baseballs at each other's heads and argue over who's turn it is to take out the garbage, but yeah, that's about it."

"And how long have you known her?" Rose asked.

"Seven months." Sandra replied.

"Captain Magyari described your occupation as being a 'mercenary'. Would you say that applies to Ms Hagen?" Jean asked

"Well, yes, I suppose-" She replied, but Jean cut her off.

"And now you say that there is the possibility that Ms Hagen was going with these people willingly." He continued. "Is it possible that, as a mercenary, she was hired by them?"

"It's possible." Sandra admitted.

"Now you say that Ms Hagen left her Zoid behind." Rose continued. "What would you say she's capable of without her Zoid?"

Sandra absentmindedly rubbed the scars under her eyepatch. "Well, she throws a mean baseball." They both eyed her suspiciously. "She's an excellent marksman with hand-held weapons" Sandra admitted. "I've never known her to miss. It goes without saying that she's a great shot in the Gunsniper."

"So would you say that she's potentially dangerous?" Rose asked.

Sandra leaned back. "I'd say that the word you're looking for here is 'very' dangerous."

-----

"Well?" Vic asked. She was standing around, in the cold and the dark, with Desmond, Derrick and Amelia. The Gustav and the Sandspeeder were parked behind them, the Gustav's engine idling over loudly. Those things were made to be noisy, apparently. "Where is it?"

"Over here." Derrick replied. He shined a torch on a piece of bare grey stone. Barely perceptible in amongst it was a door. It was well sheltered, hidden from the outside world. Originally it had been painted a dull grey to fit the rest of the rock wall, but the paint had crumbled over time. Still, it looked solid.

"Excellent work, Derrick" Desmond said, examining the door. "Get the troops. We're going in."

"Yes sir!" He shouted and ran to the trailer.

"So what are we looking at?" Amelia asked. "It's a door, right?"

"Not just any door." Desmond replied. "This is one of only a handful of entrances to the lost city that we've been searching for. This door" He dramatically swept his arm towards the door. "Is the end of a long-disused emergency exit. Quentin Identified it in his journal, saying that the current occupants of the city didn't even seem to be aware of its existance."

"So we're going in by the back door." Vic said, then added, under her breath. "I never figured you for a back door type."

"Where does it go?" Amelia asked

"The journal says it leads to an empty sub-level underneath their actual city." Desmond replied. "From there, it should be easy for us to make our way up to the city proper." he looked at the pair of them. "This way we can avoid detection until the time is right." Before he could continue, there was a squeal of long-rusted hinges followed by a loud clanging noise as several of the soldiers pulled the door open. In the quiet night of the Dark Continent, the sound seemed deafening, drowning out any conversation.

"We're in" Derrick reported.

"Excellent work." Desmond replied. A pair of soldiers moved inside, shining their gun-mounted torches around inside. There was no shouting, no gunfire, no alarms. Nothing.

"All clear, sir!" One of them shouted. Desmond stepped inside, Vic following close behind him. He shined his torch around the room; revealing nothing but bare concrete, cracked in places and a set of stairs descending off into the inky black depths. Looking around, there were cracks in the concrete, the handrail was rusted and the light fitting was empty. It was silent, save for the sounds of people moving. "You were right, sir. It looks like it hasn't been used in ages."

"Dead." Vic muttered.

"Very good." Desmond replied, either not hearing or ignoring her. He walked outside, standing before the soldiers. "This is a great moment for us! Move in and proceed down in double file! Maintain silence at all times, unless it is vital! For the cause!"

"For the cause!" The troops replied and moved in.

"Whatever." Vic muttered.

"Derrick, Amelia, Victoria?" He looked around at the three of them. "With me."

The group entered and descended the stairs. For an agonizingly long time they proceeded downwards in silence, one flight of stairs after another. The passage, or what little of it they seemed, was featureless. There were no exists at various levels, no functional lights and no indication of where they were or how far down they had proceeded. Also, more ominously, there was no indication of if anyone else knew they were there. Finally, after what Vic figured to be a short eternity, they reached the bottom.

It was a small, plain room, in most respects identical to the one at the top. The only exit was a single door, with a generic fire door safety notice attached to it. Desmond barged his way past the mass of soldiers to stand by the door, Vic following him. "What is it?" he demanded.

"It's a door." She muttered under her breath.

"It's the exit, sir." A soldier replied, seemingly oblivious to what Vic had said.

"This should open onto an unused sub-level below their main city." He explained. "From there, we can infiltrate and remain hidden until the time is right." He indicated to the soldier by the door. "Open it."

"Yes, sir." The soldier replied, then opened the door. Around him, the others made ready with their rifles to attack anything on the other side. Nothing happened. Looking back at Desmond for a second, the soldier stepped outside the room. After a minute, he returned. "Commander?" He said. "I think you should see this."

Desmond stepped outside with the Soldier, Vic following him. "So what is it?" He asked, impatiently. The soldier pointed upwards, with the three of them looked up. They were in a massive cavern, with huge buildings going from the ground level all the way up to the ceiling. Overhead roadways ran between the buildings, vanishing off to the limits of their vision. The ceiling was a mass of pipes, vents and tubes, with huge lights suspended over them. Currently they were set on a soft blue light, presumably to give the subterranean city the illusion of night.

"This is a very big disused sublevel" She muttered.

"I think..." Desmond muttered. "I think that we may need to modify our plans somewhat."

-----

After disembarking from the ship, and their rather unpleasant reunion with their fellows, the Dark Star's pilots had been bustled off for a "debriefing." Alex, Bob and Bekka had been separated from Sel and Matt, and left sitting in a rather bland waiting room. Ominously enough, Bekka had been asked to "answer some questions" fist, and hadn't been seen in a while. Neither of them had said anything in a while, instead concentrating on starring at the wall.

Finally, Bob spoke. "What do you think's happening?"

"No idea, man." Alex replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. "No idea."

There was a pause. "Why do you reckon they've bought us down here for questioning anyway?"

"We just showed up making wild statements about a potential terrorist attack with a pair of outsiders in tow and a huge hole in the side of the ship." Alex replied. "I think that you can figure it out."

"So why not a normal debrief?"

"Who knows."

There was another pause. "Bekka's been in there a while." Bob said.

"You worried?" Alex asked, turning to look at him.

"Well..." He stammered. "Yeah, I guess. I just..."

"You didn't approve of her seeing that guy, did ya, Bob?" Alex finished.

"I suppose." He said. "Not because it's against regulations but because, well..." He shrugged. "I guess because Rick's not, well, one of us."

"Don't worry about it, Bob." Alex replied. "Its natural. We've known her for, well, how long?"

"Most of our lives" Bob replied.

"Since she was old enough to hit me with a toy fire truck at any rate." Alex finished. "She's like our sister or something. It's natural to be concerned about it."

"I guess." Bob finished. "Hey, uh, sorry for begin such a pain these last few months."

"Don't worry about it, man." Alex said, leaning back. "You were just following the rules in a situation where the normal rules don't apply." He said, "If the worst comes to the worst, you can claim that you objected every step of the way and hope you can plea-bargain on that."

There was a long pause. "Did she really hit you with a toy fire truck?" Bob asked.

"Many, many times." Alex replied, then laughed.

"Wha?" He said, looking confused.

"Never mind." Alex said. "Look, when we were attacked by those flying mutants... What you did, going out there like that and voluntarily staying out there when your Zoid was damaged and you were injured... That was very brave of you."

"I was just doing my job." He said, quietly.

"Stuff that." Alex replied. "What you did was in credibly brave and, ah hell. You know that we might not be alive if not for you?"

"I suppose..." He muttered.

"So don't be all gloomy. Put that on your plea bargain as well, and you might just get off with a monster demotion." Alex finished, then laughed again.

"You're surprisingly happy, all things considered."

Alex looked at the guards watching the pair of them. "Some days, you've got to be."

-----

After a lot of questions, Rick and Sandra had been politely escorted to an anonymous-looking housing block that Sandra suspected was a barracks or, at a pinch, station house. Each one of them had been given a somewhat bare (and uncomfortable looking) room and a statement that they would be "collected" in the morning to being work on tracking Vic (and a potentially existing army of potentially armed and dangerous terrorists/infiltrators/whatever) down. Sandra took this to mean "stay put", a suspicion which was confirmed when they found that their doors couldn't be opened from the inside. Apparently, the doors needed a security card that, oddly enough, neither she or Rick had been given.

Rick had tried with moderate determination for a few minutes (And with little determination for a bit longer), Rick had slumped down onto his bed to begin sketching. If nothing else, he'd gotten a good amount of material out of today. That Rose girl... well, she was trying to arrest him or something, but on the other hand, well, damn she was hot... Everything here was good material. The ruined subterranean city, the Whale King bay, the soldiers in the scary-looking uniforms; he could use all of that.

A knock at the door interrupted his train of thought. "Come in, I'm decent." He said as he sat up, figuring it was Sandra. Maybe they'd let her out, the thought. Maybe they just forgot to give me an access card. Instead, much to his surprise, it was Rose.

"Hi." She began.

"Um..." Rick trailed off, not sure what to say. He hadn't expected this, to say the least. And if this was some sort of official visit, he figured, she'd have announced herself first. Or kicked in the door. Or whatever the military authorities in places like this did. But knocking politely and saying 'hi' was probably not it. Not unless the heavily armed troops were lurking further down the hall. So he settled for staring blankly for a minute.

"Um, you okay?"

"Yeah, sure, fine!" He replied, completely at a loss for words.

"I just wanted to apologise for earlier." She began. "I know that it was probably a little impolite of us to drag the pair of you off like that without saying what we were doing. I'd say it was procedure, but, well, we were facing an unprecedented situation."

"It's cool." Rick replied. "I can understand where you're coming from. I guess I'd do the same if I was in the same situation."

"Thanks." She said, and smiled. "Anyway, let's not worry about that now. Mind if i have a seat?"

"Sure." He replied.

She took of her jacket and threw it onto the room's small table. Rick was somewhat surprised to see that she was, under that, wearing what he figured to be a non-regulation, near skintight black sleeveless top. A long thorn pattern tattoo snaked its way up her right arm, throwing him even further off. "Thanks for that. I've talked with the relevant authorities and we're starting a search for your friend. With all the help you and Sandra gave us, we're pretty sure we can find her."

"Wrblflrx." Rick muttered, trying not to say anything about Storm Sworders, melons or the like.

"Anyway, I was kind of interested in what you did for a living." Rose said. "You said that before you were a mercenary, you were a comic book artist?"

"Artist-writer" He stammered out. "I both write and draw. But I'm on a working holiday now."

"Working holiday?" She asked. "I thought this was a new line of work."

"Naw, I'm trying to create a new comic, based on my experiences as a mercenary Zoid pilot in the wastelands." He explained. "It's going to be a realistic, violent and gritty story about real people in real situations."

"So, what, it's sort of everything you did and saw while working as a mercenary?" She asked.

"Yeah, well, that's the plan." He said. "So I write down everything I do and try to sketch everything I see so I can use it."

"Really?" She leaned forward. "You don't have a copy of that stuff on you?" I'd love to see it..." She looked over her shoulder. "I, uh, don't get out much, if you understand what I mean."

"You're in luck." Rick said as he climbed off the bed. "I always keep a copy of my sketchpad on a disk in case I meet anyone who might be interested, like a potential publisher." He rummaged through his pack for a moment. "Ahah!" He pulled out a data disk, creatively labeled 'Rick's Sketchpad' and handed it to her.

"Thanks for that." she said.

"It's a couple of days old." He said. "I haven't put anything onto it since before we left home to come here but it's pretty complete otherwise."

"Hey, I don't mind." She replied. "I wanted to, well, you know, see a bit of the outside world, even if it is through someone else's eyes." She said. "And I'm sure you're a good artist."

"Thanks." Rick said. "I, uh, try my best. If you guys don't object too much, I'd like to get at least some material from here. There's a rather distinct visual style to this place and I'd like to try and capture some of that. A sort of pseudo-industrial megaplex look, but an inhabited one."

Rose paused for a second before replying. "Um, this is a big ask, but would I get in to it? I mean, well, if you could find a place for me in the comic."

"I'm sure I could." Rick replied. "I mean, if I did coming to-" he waved his hands in the air around him. "-this place as a story arc, I'd definitely put you in it."

"Would you need some sort of visual reference?" She asked.

"Yeah, well..." Rick trailed off. "I'd probably want to do a whole bunch of sketches to reference and get a look for your character design."

She nodded. "I'll have to show you some time. Maybe later, even."

Rick's brain just stopped. "Show me? As in..."

"You'll see." She winked, and stood. "I've got to go now, Rick."

"Uh... sure..." Rick replied, still flabbergasted.

She collected her coat and the disk, and left. Rick sat there for a second, his brain churning over, before he noticed something odd. Rose had left a card on the table; a card that looked suspiciously like the security cards that were used to access their rooms. He picked it up. Yep, definitely an access card.

Waiting a little longer, he slipped over to the door and swiped the card. He was strangely surprised when it opened, and a little more so when it didn't set off any alarms, and no troops came barging in. He cautiously slipped over to the next room, then knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" Came Sandra's muffled voice form inside.

"It's me, Rick. Can I come in?" He hissed.

"Rick?" She sounded surprised. Nothing usually surprised her. 'Sure."

He quietly swiped the card, and slipped into the room. Sandra was lying on the bed, having spread all her stuff around the room as she tended to do to any room she inhabited. An hour and she'd already made a mess of the place. "What the frelling hell are you doing in here? And more to the point, how?"

"Security card." He replied. "Rose paid me a visit a few minutes ago. She left this behind by accident. At least, I think it was by accident."

"Yeah right." Sandra replied. "You seem to attract the weirdo redheads."

"Weirdo redheads with tattoos." Rick replied.

"Natch." Sandra replied. "So what did you want? Stick things under your fingernails till you confessed to everything? Or did she just want to play with your bedflute?"

"What?" Rick replied, then figured it out. "Nah, she wanted to talk about my comic."

"Your comic?" Sandra asked. "I find that hard to believe. Women don't read comics."

"Naw, she was interested. Said she wanted to be in it too." He explained. "Said she wanted to do some reference sheets with me."

"I'll bet." Sandra muttered. "And she left you with a card? Weird."

"Maybe she's forgetful." Rick finished. "Ah hell, who cares."

"I see you're doing well." Sandra muttered.

"Better then I thought." He replied. "You?"

"Fine." She replied. "Which means Frelled-up, insecure, neurotic and emotional, by the way."

"You worried about Vic?" Rick asked.

"That's unusually perceptive of you, Rick. Well done." Sandra replied. "You?"

"Yeah." He admitted.

"I know that they said they'd try to find her, but I'm just a bit worried." Sandra said. "I have a horrible feeling that we're looking at a 'shoot first, ask questions later' approach to this kind of thing. I also suspect their counter-terrorism units may be a little rusty."

"Rose said they hadn't dealt with outsiders before." Rick offered.

"I'll have to believe her." Sandra replied. "Sel said something about them not having contact with the outside for fifty years. Although I do wonder where they're getting production-standard CPs from."

"Maybe they fell off the back of back of a Gustav." Rick said and laughed, then stopped. "You worried about Sel?"

"Yeah." Sandra replied. "I pressured her into bringing us here. If anything happens to here, we're responsible. I feel kind of bad about it."

"She'll be fine." Rick replied. "She's clever. She's resourceful. She's brave. I'm sure she can figure out some way to come out of this intact."

"You sound so distressingly chirpy" Sandra muttered.

"Someone has to." Rick said. "Otherwise all our conversations would be gloom and doom punctuated by the odd insane non sequitur." There was a long pause as if they were both waiting for something to happen. Instead they stared at each other for a while. "I miss her." Rick finally admitted.

"Yeah, me too." Sandra added. And then, unexpectedly, she stood up and hugged him. "I miss her a lot all ready."

"I'm sure it will be okay, Sandra." Rick said, his eyes closed. "I'm sure it will."

-----

Outside, around the corner from Rick and Sandra's rooms, Rose was watching. She'd expected Rick to leave his room and go to see Sandra, but was surprised it had taken him so long to get out there. Either he was more lost for what to do with his card, or just was still floored from her little 'offer' from earlier. She liked him in a way. He was nice, but gullible and easy to manipulate. Plenty of room to work with there, she thought. Still, the disk he gave her may hold some interesting information about the outside world and, she suspected, the nature of the relationship between him and Sel's unit.

What she'd heard from Sandra and Rick about Victoria, no, Vic, she corrected herself, sounded interesting. Insane, unpredictable, dangerous. This could turn out to be very interesting indeed.

-----

Whale King Hydra

Above the Badlands

2100 Hours

Colonel Warwick Pie stood at the window of his shipboard office, looking out over the dark landscape below him. They were so close, he thought to himself. He knew they were out there, and he knew that he was so close to them. But he couldn't proceed yet. He had to be patient. The information in the Quentin Journal had shown him that he couldn't just attack head on. He had to be ready. He had to prepare.

A beep from the communicator on his desk interrupted his train of thought. The turned around and activated the panel. "Pie here." He began. "What's up?"

"I have a message for you, sir." The spotty-faced young tech on the screen replied. "Its coming through on a priority channel coded for you only. Shall I put it through for you?"

Excellent, he thought. This had to be what he wanted to hear. "Put it through!" He exclaimed eagerly.

"Yes sir" The tech replied. His face was replaced with a blank "Sound only" screen.

"It's me." The voice on the other end said. He recognized it immediately as Desmond's.

"What's your status?" He asked.

"We've arrived at the target but-"

"Excellent!" He replied, grinning. "I knew the information in the journal was correct! Kandrak and Quentin were right! This is great news!"

"Yes sir." Desmond replied. "However, we have encountered and unexpected complication."

"What's the problem, man?" He snapped.

"The information in the journal is accurate if somewhat out of date." Desmond replied. "We're going to have to delay our operation for a few days while we re-asses our objectives."

"But you can proceed?" Pie asked.

"Yes sir." Desmond replied. "But, as I said, it will take a few more days. We'll contact you when the time is right." He then ended the transmission.

Pie turned away from the monitor to look out the window. Soon, he thought. Soon, he would find them and then he would destroy them all. The beast he had onboard this ship, a unique creature amongst all the Zoids of the Shelflands, would see to that.

-----


	23. Don't go There

Carl W Greer Memorial Hospital

Dark Continent

1000 Hours

Doctor Herman Cortez was a busy man at the best of times. Considered to be an excellent surgeon, his particular area of expertise, Cybernetic systems, was highly sought after. The military were constantly in need of his skills, particularly with the installation of the cybernetic control interfaces that were used to control their Zoids. In past, they'd also consulted with him over improvements or refinements to the system, particularly the troublesome feedback issue. So when he heard that there were a pair of officers from military intelligence waiting to see him, he wasn't surprised.

They were pretty much the norm for what he'd come to expect from intelligence types. A man and a woman, both wearing plain black suits and sunglasses. The man was tall and imposing looking with short, dark hair, while the woman was somewhat shorter with a large blonde puffball. "Sorry to keep you waiting." He said. "I guess we're all having a busy day. Doctor Herman Cortez, at your service." He extended his hand.

The man shook it, Cortez noting his rather strong grip. "Doctor Cortez, this is agent Boston and I'm agent Heller. We've got a special case that we wanted you to take a look at."

"Special case?" He began. "Don't tell me you're trying to reactivate that thing again."

Boston and Heller paused for a second, before continuing. "Nothing of the sort, Dr Cortez." he finally replied. "Just something that needs your specialist attention. However, for security reasons, I can't tell you here."

He sighed. Some pilot had probably gone and gotten their system fried trying to test... well, he'd seen it before. "Right. I guess I'll find that I've already been signed off the roster for today." He shrugged. "So let's get going."

The pair of them lead him outside (He always thought the term was relative. He was "outside" the building but still "inside" the mountain) to a black sedan of the type that spooks seemed to prefer. Boston took the wheel, while he and Heller climbed in the back. Neither of them seemed to be speaking, so he finally decided to say something. "So what's the case?"

"Cybernetic control system installation." Heller replied. "The patient has special needs."

"Right." He turned to look out the tinted windows at the city going past. The roadway they were on was about halfway up the city's height, towers soaring from the gloomy depths below to the roof above them. Something was wrong here, he thought. Then he looked behind him. They were driving away from the central core, away from the military facilities, and heading out to the outer rim of the city. "Shouldn't we be going the other way?" He asked.

"Special operation." Heller replied. The car slowed as it neared a tunnel built into the wall of the mountain. A soft mechanical clanking noise informed him that it had disengaged its pickup from the power grid built into the roadways, and switched over to its own internal electric motor. The car vanished into the gloomy depths of the tunnel, curving around before joining a larger roadway that slowly spiraled upwards. A rather disused roadway, he noted. "You're heading up to the old city!" He exclaimed. "What's going on here?"

Heller reached into his coat and pulled out a small, sinister-looking pistol. "Like I said, Dr Cortez, this is a special operation. Now I suggest you cooperate with me, and his will go as quickly and painlessly as possible." The car left the tunnel, switching back to an open road. Looking out, Dr Cortez could see that they were now in the ruins of the old city; abandoned years ago following Chrom's attempted coup and the subsequent fighting.

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"To a hospital, of course." Heller replied.

-----

Rick and Sandra were having a rare moment of peace and quiet, something they'd had very little of in the last three days. The morning after their stay in the house arrest suite (As Sandra put it), they'd been woken and asked to join Rose, Jean and a horde of security goons. In turn, they'd met with Sel and her squad and attended a long briefing on the situation. It' had been very informative for the pair of them.

They'd learned a bit about the city, for starters. It was built inside a massive, artificial cavern inside what could be only described as a hollowed-out mountain. It was divided into two "layers", known as the New City and the Old City. The old city, which was the top layer that they had entered through, was built first and now largely abandoned. The reason for this was apparently due to the fighting from fifty years ago, but Rick had idly wondered why it wasn't simply rebuilt. The new city had been built in the cavern underneath that in the subsequent years; unlike the old city which resembled a normal city, the new city consisted of massive, multi-layered buildings connected with numerous interlinked roadways.

There were two additional layers to the city; underneath each level was a mess of sub-levels containing all the systems needed to run a city; the power grid, the communications, the water supply, the sewerage and so forth. The sub-levels, particularly those below the Old City were a maze of pipes, tubes, drains, conduits, ducts and the like that few ventured into unless they needed to. Popular urban legend had that it was home to dropouts, rejects, drug addicts, mutants, freaks, survivors form Kandrak's unit that were still fighting, wild Neptunes and the like. This was where it was theorised that Vic, and anybody else she was with, would be hiding.

The other thing that they'd learned was that there were only two known ways into the city. The first was the big doors that they'd been through when they arrived. The second was a launch bay at the top of the mountain that was used to launch the Reddlers that made up their air force. Both entrances were well monitored and had all comings and goings recorded and documented. So if they were in here, which the trend was leaning towards, they must have entered by some other, currently unknown entrance. Theory said that Kandrak had escaped using one he made himself, but it had never been discovered.

They'd also had to give a briefing on Vic. It hadn't been easy. Attempting to cover her likely behavior was nearly impossible, and had led to a lot of umming and ahhing about the situation. They also suspected that their "not sure" response to just abut every question about her background and training had also not gone over well. So it was expected that they'd get to sit around and do nothing while everyone else did the hard work, and eventually be called to act as witnesses in a sham trial.

And then someone had pointed out that Sandra used to be a policeman, and it had all gone down hill from there.

For the last three days the pair of them had been bussed around from one possible infiltration to another, following up each and every reported sighting, each suspected hole in the security and so on. So far they'd found nothing. But they'd been kept very busy finding it. At the end of each day, the pair of them had simply collapsed, only to be roused a few hours later. Sandra had noted that despite several requests, they hadn't been allowed to see Sel or any of her men. The story went that they were busy with helping the authorities with their investigation, but Sandra doubted that.

This morning, however, there was a lack of fresh sightings. The pair of them had been allowed to breathe for a moment while remaining within the confines of the "police station" that they'd been operating from. So they'd gone to the canteen to stuff their faces while comparing notes.

"Here's something." Rick said. "Rose and Jean are Zoid pilots. Rose told me while we were being bustled around yesterday. I'd guessed that, somehow."

"Interesting." Sandra said. "Did she say what she piloted?"

"No, but I'm guessing that it's a dark Zoid like the others we've seen so far." The few Zoid bays they'd seen during their tour had revealed nothing but Darkhorns, Heldigunners, Deadborders and Reddlers. Not much variety, but then they'd figured that it was hard to find Zoids out here, especially without drawing attention to yourself. "Although I wouldn't be surprised if it was a sto-"

"Don't say it, Rick." Sandra said. "But it reminds me of something. You've been sketching as we go, right?"

"Pretty much." Rick said. "Why do you ask?"

"We've spoken to a few Zoid pilots in the last few days, right?" She began. "Tell me, Rick. Would you describe them all as tall, fit and beautiful looking?"

Rick absentmindedly chewed his pencil. "Well, I wouldn't call Bob 'beautiful'..." He trailed off and flipped through the top few pages on his pad. "Hmm... Sel's pretty tall."

"Nearly as tall as me, and I'm a tall woman." Sandra said. That was true. Sandra was tall and built, he was a bit above average and skinny and Vic was short. Between the three of them they made for an amusing look. "And I'd say Rose is as tall as me. And stop dribbling whenever I mention her name."

"Uh, sure." Rick muttered. "And I'd say that Matt and Alex were about my size, but more heavily built. Bob is ferking enormous. He looks like an overstuffed bag of walnuts."

"And attractive?"

"Well..." He went through is pad again. "Sel could be a bikini model easy. Bekka could if she didn't have all the tats."

"And I can't say I can argue with the looks of the guys." Sandra said.

"So... tall, fit and beautiful-looking are the requirements to be a pilot?" Rick asked.

"Possibly." She looked around. "All the security troopers we've seen fit into the 'whatever' category. I mean, they're in decent shape, but I'd say that there's plenty of short and ugly ones too."

"Interesting. Maybe its a job requirement or something." Rick said.

"Now you're being silly. Maybe they're just hiding the ugly Zoid pilots from us."

"Who's being silly?" Rick asked.

Before she could reply, the pair were interrupted by a polite 'ahem'. Looking up, they saw Rose standing at their table. "Sorry to interrupt you guys." She began. "But we've just got a report of a doctor missing from a hospital. One of the witnesses says they last saw him with a blonde woman."

-----

After a long, quiet ride through the ruined city, the Sedan had stopped. Cortez had been bustled out and was somewhat surprised to find that they were outside a hospital. While its facade was cracked and decayed from a lack of maintenance, it still appeared to be intact, unlike its surroundings. "See, a hospital." Heller said, still pointing the gun at him. "Now let's not keep the patient waiting."

He was led inside the building, through a maze of dark abandoned corridors, eventually ascending several floors. Most things of value had been long since stripped from the building when its facilities were transferred to a newer hospital; the scavengers had taken most of what remained. Still, the odd item remained. He noticed that it looked like some things had been moved or disturbed recently. Somebody had been making this place ready for something.

They arrived in a waiting room that looked like it had been converted to an all-in-one briefing room and sleeping quarters. There were numerous maps and diagrams spread out across a table, while several sleeping bags were rolled up and tucked up in a corner. There were two other people here; a tall, long-haired man and a short blonde woman. Neither of them wore suits; the man was in a grey pilots uniform and the woman in camouflage fatigues. The man stood as they entered. "Welcome back commander."

"How's everything been here, Derrick?" Heller asked.

"Quiet, sir." He replied. "The field units report nothing new as yet, but they're still searching for their objectives."

"And Hagen?"

"She's been her usual quiet self." He said, gesturing to the blonde woman who was currently doing up her bootlaces. "I take it this is the man?"

"Yes." Heller replied.

"I know its not my place to ask, but I'd like to know what's going on here." Cortez began.

"Certainly, doctor." Heller began. "My name is Emil Desmond. These are my associates, Derrick Hallis, Amelia Snow and Victoria Hagen. We have bought you here for a good cause, Doctor."

"I hope you can justify kidnapping as a part of your cause." He muttered.

"Our cause is one of world peace." Desmond replied. "We seek an end to all wars. We want to unify all the peoples of the Shelflands as one. And you are going to help us achieve our aim."

"How?" He replied. He knew he was outnumbered and outgunned here, so he had little choice but to play along.

"We need you to install a cybernetic control rig." Desmond replied. "We chose you because all we'd read indicated that you were the expert in the field, probably the best. You should be honored."

"It'll be difficult." He replied. 'I need materials, equipment... I can't just do it here."

"Already provided for." Amelia replied. "You'll find a fully equipped operating room is waiting for you. You'll have all you need."

"But... how?" He asked.

"We have our ways." Desmond replied. It was then that he noted a nurse's uniform amongst a pile of neatly stacked clothes. It was somewhat shorter then the norm, he reflected, but it explained a lot.

"And the patient?"

"Ms Hagen here." He indicated to her.

She turned from her boots to look up at him. She seemed almost out of place amongst the others. Something was not right, out of place... then he saw her pale-yellowy green eyes. "Hi." She muttered.

"Fascinating." He walked over to her. "Those are your natural colour?"

"Yes." She replied.

"Hmm..." He turned to Desmond. "It's tricky. Her eyes will make matching the sensory feeds difficult, but not impossible. I assume you have her medical record complete with blood type, allergies, past illnesses or injures and so on."

Derrick handed him a folder. "Right here."

He skimmed though them. They certainly seemed complete. "One question." He said. "Does she have any history of psychiatric illnesses?"

"No." Desmond replied.

"That's good. There could be, uh, difficulties otherwise." He finished. "I guess we can proceed then."

-----

Rick found it interesting that the officers supervising the security in a hospital weren't civilian security guards, but officers form the same security organisation as all the other troopers he and Sandra had been hanging around for the last few days. More interesting was the fact that they wore the same uniforms as the security troops. Presumably their submachine guns and mean-looking helmets were kept stored on-site. Forget waiting for an armed response, Rick thought. These guys were an on-site armed response.

"Don't think they're a little paranoid about their security, do you?" Rick whispered to Sandra as they were escorted through the halls.

"They life in a hole in the ground in the Dark continent and avoid outsiders at all costs." Sandra said. "Paranoid is an understatement." She glanced around. "Tool. It had to be a hospital. I hate hospitals."

"Cheer up." Rick said. "This is a lead. With any luck, we could have her back soon."

"Great." Sandra muttered.

"We're here." Rose announced. The three of them entered what Rick assumed to be a security control room. It featured a veritable wall of monitors, a trio of security officers trying to monitor as many of them as possible at once and a large locker that Rick suspected contained firearms, helmets, ammo and other nasty surprises. One of the security officers stood and saluted when they entered.

"At ease, Private." She replied. "We're here to see the security tape from this morning's abduction."

"Uh, captain?" He asked. "These two?" He indicated to Rick and Sandra.

"These two are working with me on the case." Rose replied. "You are to cooperate with them and help them in any way they request."

"Yes, captain." He replied.

"So get me a coffee." Sandra said.

"And a donut." Rick added.

"Uh, captain?" He asked.

"Just do it, private." Rose replied. He jumped up and all but sprinted out of the room. Taking his seat, Rose opened up the display archives. "Let's see... it was about 1000 hours this morning so..." She pressed a couple of buttons on the console.

"What've you got there?" Rick asked.

"Security camera footage." Sandra answered for her. "Great evidence. You'd be amazed the sort of stupid things that people will get caught doing on one of those."

"Really?" Rick asked.

"Remember Geoff Garren?" She replied.

"How could I not?"

"We got a warrant for him based on him shouting 'no witnesses' and opening fire in the middle of a street mall with a half-dozen cameras watching him. Dumbarse."

"Here we are." Rose said, cutting her off. "Out two mysterious strangers." The screen showed a tall, dark-haired man and a blonde woman in dark suits with glasses. "According to witnesses, they identified themselves as Griff Heller and Alice Boston. Recognise them?"

"Nope." Sandra said, looking at the pair of them. "The guy could be anyone, but the woman's definitely not Vic. Too tall, too slim, and definitely not that hair."

"Hang on a second." Rick said. "I think I've seen that guy before."

"Rick, you've seen lots of tall guys with short dark hair before." Sandra said. "They constitute the bulk of the 'people trying to kill us' list."

"Yeah, I know that. But when Bekka and I saw the Sandspeeder that Vic was on, she got a better book at the guy on the back then me." Rick explained. "She said he had short, dark hair and was wearing sunnies. Now that guy does fit the description, but I know it's rather generic. However if she could take a look at him, maybe she could ID him as the same guy."

"Could be worth a shot." Rose said. "Just give me a minute." She stood and left the room, leaving Rick and Sandra with the two other security officers.

"So what do you think, he's our man?" Sandra asked. Behind her, the third trooper returned with a cup of coffee and a donut. She took the coffee and handed the donut to Rick.

"Best lead we've gotten so far." Rick replied, then bit into his donut. "I mean, it'd be more than just a coincidence if he was. I think that if we can find him, we'll find Vic."

"Yeah." Sandra sipped her coffee. "Past experience has told me never overlook the power of coincidence. You'd be surprised how many cases are resolved that way. The scroat you nick for filching someone's hub caps turns out to be the serial granny kicker you've been chasing after for the last month. It happens."

"So you think it's him?"

"I hope so." Sandra replied. "It's all we have so far." She sipped her coffee again. "What I want to know is if she's driven them mad thus far. It's been four days, and she's spent a lot of that cooped up inside a Whale Shark with them."

"Come on, she's not that bad." Rick replied as he finished his donut. "I mean, we hang around her and we're fine."

"...I'm not touching that." Sandra muttered.

Some twenty minutes later, Rose returned with Bekka. She was wearing her full uniform and jacket, and looked a lot quieter and more sullen then when they'd last seen her. Certainly she didn't appear to be her usual hyperactive, bouncing around the landscape self. "Hey, Sandra, Rick." She muttered.

"Err, hi." Rick replied.

"Rick, would you care to show Bekka what we were talking about?" Rose asked.

"Uh, sure." Rick replied. "Remember back in Bed Springs when that Sandspeeder nearly ran us over and got us started on this whole mess?"

"Yeah." Bekka muttered. "What about it?"

"Well, you got a better look at the guy on the back of it then I did." Rick explained. "Now we've got someone on video who might be the same guy. We were hoping you could ID him for us."

"Ok, show us." She replied. Rose stepped aside and indicated to the monitor with the freeze-frame of the two perpetrators, with the camera almost directly on Heller's face. "I think it's him... do we have any other shots of his face?"

"Let's see." Rose took the seat, and bought up several other shots of his face. "This is the best we can get." She replied.

"I'm not sure..." Bekka replied. "But the hair and the chin look the same to me... I guess it could be him."

"Great." Rose said. "You guys stay here. I'm going to send this through. It's our best lead yet." She got up and left the room.

Bekka and Rick looked at each other for a while, before either of them spoke. "So, um..." Rick began. "How are you?"

"Great." She muttered. "We've been more or less confined to quarters pending an investigation of every single little thing that happened during the expedition. Every now and then they haul us out just so we can compare notes on any leads on this case." She sighed. "My mother called me. She never calls me. Do you know what she said to me?"

"Um... no." Rick replied.

"She said that she might be able to 'arrange' things so that whatever happens they go easier on me." Bekka replied. "Great, huh?"

"Yeah..." Rick stammered.

"I'm sorry, it's probably just stress." She replied. "How are you going?"

"Well, we're confined to quarters too." Rick explained. "Except since Sandra used to be a policeman, they've been dragging the pair of us to every possible lead they have. Today was the first solid one we've had."

"Not good?"

"I've barely slept." Rick admitted. "Sandra's not much better."

"I'm just going to hassle this guy for another coffee." Sandra replied. "You two don't mind me."

"You okay?" Rick quietly asked.

"Yeah." She replied. "You?"

"Better then can be expected, I guess." He admitted. "Hopefully, this lead will go somewhere. It may be all over soon."

"I hope so, Rick." Bekka replied. "I really hope so."

-----

Fire. Burning red flames. A city in ashes. Ruined Zoids all around. Destruction, glorious destruction.

Vic sat bolt upright, and looked around her. She was in a bed, in what she guessed was a very improvised operating theatre. Hospital, of course. She'd been in a hospital. She'd gone in for the operation. There was a man sitting by the bed. He appeared to be in his early fourties with greying hair and a droopy moustache, and a lab coat. She remembered who he was. Herman Cortez, cyber-surgeon. Definitely an operating theatre then.

"You're awake." He said. "The operation was a success. The system should be completely operable, but obviously we'll need a Zoid in order to test it."

She rubbed the back of her neck. There was a strange tingling sensation there.

"There may be a little discomfort at first." He continued. "But it'll pass within a day or two. I guess I should tell the others how it's going."

"Shhh." She said, then climbed out of the bed. "They're outside?" She whispered.

"Yes..." He replied quietly.

"How many?"

"Three last I saw."

"Good." Vic replied, then grinned. Dr Cortez nervously backed away from her. "Stay right there."

-----

Rose strode triumphantly into the operations centre and barged into De Lyon's temporary office. "We have them!" She announced.

"Oh?" He looked up from a couple of files he was studying. "What's the news?"

"We've got a positive connection between the kidnapping of Dr Cortez and the attempted infiltration." She explained. "Corporal Cade positively identified one of the kidnappers as someone she saw with Vic Hagen before she disappeared. In other words, we've got confirmation of infiltration."

"And how does this help us?" He asked. "We know they're in here, but we can't find them."

"Sort of." Rose replied. "We've traced the car they used. Mind if I borrow your monitor for a second?"

"Sure." Jean replied. He was interested to see what she had.

She sat down on the desk, then pulled a cable out of the back of the desktop monitor and plugged it into the small noteputer on her wrist. It bought up a map of the city at the level of the main entrance to the hospital. "We traced their car and its progress among the street's power grid." A point on the map flashed up in yellow. "It dropped off here, which is at an access tunnel that leads to the Old City."

"So they've gone into the old city." He replied. "That doesn't help."

"Not initially." Rose replied. "Now you know what Dr Cortez's specialty was?"

"Cybernetics, right?"

"Specifically the installation of the Neural Control Interface we use for our Zoids." She explained. "He's been a consultant to the military in past over several developments and applications of the technology including a few special projects."

"Special projects." Jean said. "And Hagen's a Zoid pilot, right?"

"Got it in one." Rose said. "So I'd say we've got a pretty good idea of what they're up to."

"Right." He sat back. "And they'd need medical facilities in order to do an installation. We'll need to track down any surviving facilities in the old city."

"Already arranged." She replied. "We think there may be an intact hospital or two up there, but we're checking everything else as well."

"I see." He could tell he'd been undercut by her. "Anything else, captain?"

"A couple of things." She pressed a few buttons on her wrist computer. "Rick gave me a copy of his sketchpad on disk. I've been going through it and I think there's a few things you should see."

The screen flickered over to a sketchbook picture of a Darkhorn, with detail views of the various markings, and indicators to say where on the body they were. "Rick's got a pretty detailed lay out of the markings on all the Zoids used by Sel's unit." She flicked over to images of a Deadborder and Heldigunner. "He must have had a while to study them. Remember that Sel's unit was carrying the low-visibility versions of the markings, so they can't be just casual observation."

"So you're saying that Magyari did more then just transport them here?"

"I'd say a fair bit more then that." She replied. The images changed to sketchbook images of Sel's crew, going though them one at a time. He noticed that there were a lot more pictures of Bekka Cade then any of the others. "As you can see, he's got pretty complete reference sheets for Magyari's crew. The ones of Bekka are particularly detailed."

"You could say that." He replied.

"Took me by surprise. I didn't know she had a tattoo there, and there are only a few ways he'd know either." She disconnected the cable.

"So what do you suggest?" He asked. He could tell that she was ahead of him already. From here, she might as well be running things.

"I'd say that it might be a good idea if, after this is all over, Rick and Sandra don't leave here."

-----

Since arriving and taking up residence in the hospital, Desmond had sent out his troops in an effort to locate their objectives. The information in the Quentin Journal was accurate, just hopelessly out of date. This meant that all their targets needed to be located before they could strike, thus holding up their operation.

Coordinating the infiltration of the city had been a hard task. The desire to stay as stealth as possible, combined with the fact that they were in a city inside a mountain made radio communication difficult. Desmond had made his field commanders use runners to relay messages to him, it was very old fashioned, but it was the best way possible to keep in touch while avoiding exposing themselves.

A lone soldier ran, breathless, into their combined briefing/waiting/sleeping room in the hospital and saluted. "Private Wong reporting form Sargent Jaman's squad, sir!" He announced.

"Very good, private." Desmond said, standing. "What do you have for us?"

The soldier moved overt to a table and unrolled a map. It showed the area that they had identified as the military's Zoid maintenance and preparation facilities, with one of the bays circled in red pen. "We've found something unusual in the Zoid facilities." He explained.

"Unusual?" Desmond replied, then glanced at Derrick and Amelia. "In what way?"

"This bay here." He pointed at the map. "Its sealed off from the others, with no ways in and out from any of the other bays. Furthermore, there's unusually high security on it. We spotted several squads of troopers around it."

"But you weren't able to get in?"

"No sir."

"And its contents?"

"No idea." He replied. 'But there were an awful lot of hazard symbols on it. More so then any other facility."

"That could be it." Derrick whispered. "If they had a megaweapon..."

"They'd want to keep it sealed off and protected." He finished.

"Your 'blood-red death', right?" Amelia said.

"Of course." He stood. "Excellent work, private. Tell Sergeant Jaman that he is to wait there and keep the bay under observation. Report any changes to me."

"Yes sir!" He saluted, and left.

Once he was gone, Desmond turned to the other two. "So it does exist, he began."

"Commander, the evidence is hardly conclusive." Amelia offered, but was cut off.

"It must. Why else would they have a secure, heavily guarded bay that is protected farm ore then any other?" He asked.

"I'd love to know what's in there." Derrick said.

"As would I." He grinned. "We bout Ms Hagen here for a reason. I think its about time we used her."

Derrick turned towards the door of the operating theatre. The red light above the door was off, indicating that they were safe to enter. "It looks like the Doctor is done. Shall I go in and get them?"

"Certainly." Desomnd replied.

"What should we do with Cortez, by the way?" Amelia asked. "He could be a risk to us. Should I get rid of him?"

"An interesting suggestion, Amelia, but no." He replied. "He may yet be of some use to us."

There was a thumping sound from behind them. They both turned to the doorway of the operating room, to see Derrick lying flat on his back, a silvery object sticking out of his throat. "What the hell?"

Amelia walked over to him, and kneeled by his head. "Its a surgical scalpel." She said.

"How'd it get there?"

"I don't..." She began, but then trailed off. Looking up, someone had stepped out of the operating room door. It was Victoria. She was grinning like she was possessed, her pupils shrunk almost to points. And she had a gun in her hands. Amelia ran. Vic kicked the door all the way open, and opened fire with the rifle. She clearly wasn't aiming to hit anyone, but keep them down.

"What's happening?" Desmond shouted from behind a table.

"She's gone nuts and killed Derrick!" Amelia shouted back. "I told you she was dangerous!"

Vic ran from the room, an X-S autorifle in her hand. She grabbed the map off the table, then bolted out the door, spraying the gun behind her. The two of them remained under cover for a while before they emerged. "She's gone." Desmond finally said.

"Great." Amelia muttered. Then she heard more gunfire and hid under the table again.

"What's happening?" Desmond shouted. "Who's shooting?"

"I don't know!" She shouted back.

"Well find out!" He shouted.

She crawled out from under her table and peered out a broken window. Outside, grey-suited assault troops were attacking the hospital, while their own troops were firing back. It was clear form here that their men were outnumbered, and it was only a matter of time before the attackers broke through.

"We're under attack!" Amelia shouted. "Its the local security forces."

"Damn it!" Desmond shouted.

"We're out numbered!" Amelia shrieked. "What are we going to do?"

"The only thing we can do. We run!" He stood and went over to the table, only to discover that the map, highlighting the suspect bay, was missing. Hagen must have taken it when she left.

"What do we do with Cortez?" Amelia shouted, checking in the operating room. He was cowering in a corner, using a chair for cover.

"Leave him" Desmond shouted. "We don't have the time!"

-----

In amongst the mess of pipes below the hospital, a Vic Hagen squatted in the darkness. She had abandoned the X-S autorifle long ago, having collected a case from a stash he'd left in the basement. She opened the case, and carefully assembled the contents. It was a sniper rifle; nowhere near as big or powerful as the Anti-Zoid rifle she'd lost back in Rusty Springs, but still powerful enough to stop a man dead with one, well-aimed shot.

She could hear the sound of fighting above. It sounded like the locals had found Desmond and his little friends. Good. A bit more chaos, a bit more confusion, it was all good cover for her.

She could hear the voice in her back of her head again. She idly rubbed the back of her neck. "I'll be there soon." She said, apparently to herself. "Very soon."

-----


	24. Going too far

Core Security Division Headquarters

New City, Dark Continent

1700 hours

Rose strode triumphantly into De Lyon's office. She could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't looking forward to what she had to say. "Well?" He asked. "What's the latest update?"

"Turns out that my hunch paid off." She replied, casually examining her nails. "The information provided by Rick, Sandra and Corporal Cade lead us to a hospital in the old city. That hospital, in turn, was occupied by a group of armed terrorists. The troops attacked and have eliminated at least ten enemy soldiers."

"And they're definitely from outside?" He asked.

"I'd like to get Rick and Sandra to take a look at them, but initial reports suggest that they're definitely not locals." She continued. "We've secured the hospital, and are now sending out search parties into the sub-levels under the old city. It turns out they'd done some digging to construct a few escape routes through the floor."

"I see." He said.

"I'd say that, whoever they were, they were well prepared. I personally suspect that they may have gotten a lot of their information from a copy of the Quentin journal." She continued. "If I recall correctly, you assigned captain Magyari to deal with that problem, correct?"

"Yes." He replied. "Sel's report indicated that she had eliminated all of Kandrak's unit. Clearly she missed someone."

"Either that or there was someone else in possession of a copy of the journal." She said. "But you'd have known about that when you briefed Sel, right?"

"So what have you come here for?" He asked, clearly changing the topic.

"I need to borrow Sandra and Rick so they can get a look at the bodies. Hopefully they can identify who these people are and where they're from. Who knows, they may even lead us to Hagen."

"Go ahead." He muttered. Rose could tell that he'd just admitted defeat. Perfect.

"Thank you, sir." She saluted and left his office. Walking into the operations command center, she found Rick and Sandra lurking in the back. Sandra was peering over some hapless tech's shoulders, bugging them with questions about their policing procedure, while Rick was sketching. She walked over to the pair of them. "Sorry to interrupt, but I've got some good news."

"Oh?" Rick began, looking up form his pad.

"You're moving our house arrest to a five star hotel, right?" Sandra said, dryly.

"Not quite, but we're making good progress." Rose replied. "Checking that video paid off. We tracked the abductors down to a hospital in the old city. We successfully raided the place and managed to root them out. Unfortunately, we haven't yet found any trace of Vic."

"So what's it got to do with us?" Sandra asked.

"We want you two to have a look at the enemy soldiers and see if you can identify them." She replied.

"Did you find Vic?" Rick asked, clearly paying attention to something other than Rose's words.

"Not yet." She replied. "But I think we may be getting close."

"Cool." Rick said. "So let's go."

"Not so fast." Sandra demanded. "Before we go anywhere near where there may be shooting, I want my guns back. Rick's too." She and Rick had bought guns with them in their traveling packs. They had been confiscated (with everything else) upon arrival; they'd subsequently had their clothes returned but not their guns.

"I'll check that out for you right now", Rose replied. Inwardly, she grinned. She could get the guns out of the lock-up under De Lyon's authority... so if anything went wrong. Damn, it was good when people did what she wanted without her even trying. She handed Sandra a communicator. "Give me ten minutes, then I'll buzz you on this and let me know. If the answer's yes, I'll let you know where to meet me."

"Thanks." Rick replied.

"That's surprisingly..." Sandra began. "Risky of you, letting us have guns."

"Hey, I want to get this over and done with as soon as you do."

-----

Amelia and Desmond had retreated to the maze of ducts below the old city, Desmond having sacrificed most of the troopers covering their escape. Unfortunately, their escape was less then fully planned. As a consequence, they only had handguns, a few maps they'd salvaged from the ops center, and the clothes they were standing up in. As another consequence, they were now lost in the darkness below the city.

"What's the plan, commander?" Amelia had asked after about ten minutes of fumbling around. Neither of them had a torch, so they were using the few functional lights down there to find their way.

"There should be at least one squad around here." Desmond replied. "Once we locate them, we continue the operation."

"But commander, we can't continue!" She replied.

He turned around and glared at her. "And why not?" He snarled.

"Because..." She wilted back. "Because we've lost Hagen and we've lost Derrick and we've lost our base of operations and we'll never be able to get on the good sides of these people now and..." She trailed off as he loomed over her.

"It doesn't matter!" He shouted. "We continue with the operation! I will make these people pay for what they have done to us!"

Amelia shirked back further. "So... so what's the plan, commander?" Staying on his side sounded like a good idea right now.

Before he could reply, they both heard the sound of troops running down the hallway ahead. Desmond grabbed her and dragged her around a corner as they approached. They waited for the soldiers to arrive, Amelia hoping that they wouldn't spot them around the corner. After an agonisingly long wait, they saw the first troops pass. They wore black plate armour with one-way face-plates on the helmets. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief. It was their troops.

Desmond stepped out form the alcove and shouted "Stop." As one, the soldiers stopped and turned around.

"C-commander Desmond?" The squad leader stammered out.

"Yes." He replied. "What are you doing here?"

"We were on patrol, sir." The sergeant continued. "You ordered us to sweep the area in case anyone tried to infiltrate our base."

"New orders." He said. "I want half your squad to come with me. I am going to contact headquarters and summon reinforcements, then I'm going after that hanger." He turned to Amelia. "I want you to go with the sergeant and the rest of the squad."

"What for, sir?" She asked.

"I want you to hunt down and kill Hagen before the enemy discovers her." He ordered

Amelia grinned. It wasn't a pleasant grin, and it certainly didn't suit her. If Sandra could see it, she'd compare it to the grin that she saw so often on Vic. "With pleasure, sir."

-----

From ground level, the Old City looked far worse then it did from the air. Ruined buildings, rubble-choked streets and blast holes in everything dominated the landscape. The hospital they were standing outside seemed to be more intact then most of the other buildings, but even then it was decayed with age and neglect. The collection of small-arms bullet holes it had recently acquired didn't help any.

There were several troop transports and ambulances parked outside the hospital, with numerous soldiers and a number of field medics milling around. Sandra also couldn't help but noticing the row of bodies covered up by sheets lined up outside the hospital. "Strangely ironic." She muttered to Rick.

Rose barged her way through several soldiers, Rick and Sandra behind her. After spending a few seconds with somebody who Sandra assumed was in charge, she came back to the pair of them. "Come on. Let's take a look at these guys and see if they can tell us anything." The three of the, walked over to the row of dead attackers. Rose nodded to a guard, who pulled a sheet back.

The man wore a suit of black armour, made out of lightweight, high-impact plastic plates with ballistic cloth covering the joints. She noticed the holes in the armour of the dead trooper. Someone had been hitting this guy with armour-piercing or hypervelocity rounds. Gruesome, and probably overkill. "Do you have the helmet or gun this guy was wearing?" She asked

Rose indicated to a soldier who bought over the gear. The helmet looked like a standard infantry helmet with a one-way faceplate added. The gun was a subamachine gun or small assault rifle with a bulky body, relatively short barrel and no stock. "What do you think, Rick?" She aksed.

"Visually appealing." Rick replied. "The armour has a nice 'evil empire' look to it." He was sketching. "Also good for an action figure, as you could make al the baddies faceless hordes that look the same."

"Rick, you're hopeless."

"I'm just doing my job." He replied. "And no, I don't recognize them."

"Hmm…" Sandra hefted the rifle experimentally. The clip had been removed, but she could tell by the slot that it was a large clip. "Yeah, I thought so." She said.

"You recognize them?" Rose asked.

"Ayup." She replied. "The tools in the suits are from a terrorist group called A-X, often pronounced as 'A Cross.'"

"Dangerous?"

"Probably." Sandra continued. "They started out about twenty years ago. Initially they were a bunch of dissatisfied soldiers who felt that the UZN hadn't done enough to protect themselves form the Drakken Empire, and wanted to start another war to resolve matters. They were pretty much wiped out about eight or so years ago, however."

"Go on." Rose said.

"But about five year ago they cropped up again with a new ideology of world domination." Sandra continued. "Apparently a new leader took over the fragmented reigns of the organization and reformed them and pointed them on a new path."

"Sounds like the plot of a toy book." Rick commented. "A secret, evil terrorist group wants to take over the world and only a handful of brave specialists can stop 'em."

"Resources?" Rose asked, ignoring Rick."

"Not sure." She replied. "They're known to have a small army, but most of it is apparently made up of attack Zoids. Their ground forces use these plate armour suits and rifle, which is sort of a trademark calling card."

"So what do you think they're doing here?" Rose asked.

"Not sure." Sandra replied. "Maybe they want to steal some Zoids. Sure as heck, I'd rather have a Heldy over a Dimantis any day. Personally, I have no idea. You're very out of the way for them, and I doubt they were even aware of your existence until recently."

"Curious." Rose thought.

"Captain!" A trooper behind them shouted. As one, the three of them turned to face them. "We've found Doctor Cortez!" A pair of soldiers escorted the doctor out of the hospital. He appeared to be tired and was visibly shake, but appeared to be unharmed, at least physically.

"You were looking for answers?" Sandra asked. "He might be the man to talk to."

Rose walked over to him, with the pair of them in tow. "Dr Cortez?" She asked. "Captain Rose O'Bannon."

"I remember you." He said. "I did some adjustments to your control rig after you-"

"Yeah, I remember that." She rubbed the back of her neck. "Doctor Cortez, do you have any idea why they kidnapped you?"

"Yes." He replied. "They, uh, made me implant a control rig into a member of their team. She obviously didn't take it too well, as the moment she regained consciousness, she went nuts and began attacking the rest of them."

"Attacking?" Rose asked.

"Went nuts?" Sandra added.

"She?" Rick finished.

A pair of paramedics went past carrying a body on a stretcher. Judging from the shape under the sheet, it had something sticking out of its throat.

"Yes." He replied. "There was a blonde woman who they asked me to install a control rig in. After I did, she attacked the others and then ran off."

Rick barged past Rose. "Did she have these really, really weird yellow-green eyes? And a grin that made her look like she was about to bite you?"

Cortez nodded. "Definitely. I definitely recall the eyes; they were very distinctive and I commented that it would be difficult to match the sensory feeds for the rig."

"That's Vic all right." Rick said.

"And you implanted a control rig in her?" Sandra asked.

"They forced me to, yes." Dr Cortez replied. "You must understand that there were four of them and that they were all armed."

"We understand, Doctor." Rose replied. "These two are associates of the young woman you installed the rig in." She indicated to Rick and Sandra.

"You say she went a bit mad after you installed the system." Sandra began. "So, uh, how was she acting before that?"

"Quiet." He replied. "She didn't say much. They gave me her medical file and it didn't indicate any past history of madness. Psychotic behavior in subjects immediately after installation doesn't happen unless there was a previous history."

"Um… no mental illness, you said." Rick added. "And… if, say, someone was nuts when you installed the rig, it'd be bad, right?"

"Very." He replied. "As soon as they interface with a Zoid, the connection of their mind and the Zoid's mind could be, well, explosive." He explained. "We've found that Darkhorns, Deadborders and Heldigunenrs are all naturally very aggressive Zoids, which doesn't help matters."

There was a long silence. Sandra rubbed her face while muttering while Rick scribbled on his pad. Rose looked at the pair of them. "Is something wrong?"

"Vic…" Sandra began.

"Vic? As in Victoria Hagen? The young woman I operated on?" Cortez asked.

"Vic is what you would call 'completely nuts'." Sandra explained.

"Oh dear." He said. "So installing the control rig was a bad idea." They nodded.

"So what would happen if she interfaced with a Zoid?" Rose asked. "Assuming she was already completely nuts and she's now turned psychotic?"

"Well, the Zoid would probably go similarly nuts and probably rampage." Dr Cortez explained.

"Tool." Sandra swore. "Tool, tool, tool, tool tool."

"We're stuffed?" Rick asked.

"Totally tooled." Sandra replied.

"Do you know where she is?" Rose asked.

"No idea." He admitted. "She ran off just before your troops attacked."

"Hmmm…" Rose thought. "They had the place surrounded before she left, so she couldn't have left from street level."

"There are no nearby buildings she could have leapt to the roof of." Sandra added. "Otherwise that's where she would have gone. She likes high places for some ungodly reason."

"She must have gone underground with the others then." Rose said. "Good thing you two asked to bring your guns then."

"But… why?" Rick asked.

"Because we're going in after her." Rose finished. "Odds on that she and the others escaped through a basement level and into the sub-levels under the city."

"Right." Rick replied. "So let's get going." Sandra, however put a hand on his shoulder.

"Before we go charging off, there's one last thing you should know." Sandra said. "Vic likely has a sniper rifle with her. If I know her, she won't hesitate to use it if she feels threatened."

"Well this just keeps on getting more interesting." Rose replied, and smiled. "Let's go."

-----

Amelia's squad had connected up with a second squad before proceeding with their search for Vic, which had effectively tripled their numbers. Amelia had insisted in taking an XS Autorifle, despite her lack of formal training and familiarity in what was, in essence, a difficult to use and control weapon. Some poor fool had ended up with only a rather petite pocket pistol as their weapon.

Unfortunately, Amelia was also insisting on personally leading the hunt. Her area of specialty was infiltration and intelligence gathering, not field operations. However, she was senior in the organization, so everyone had to follow her orders. More importantly, she was waving a gun, shouting a lot and had a certain maniacal grin and gleam in her eye that suggested that arguing with her wasn't a good idea.

The odd rumour went around that certain members of the A-X high command were, while clearly visionaries believing in a great cause, also more then just a bit nuts. Looking at Amelia, it was easy to believe that rumour.

After tracking through seemingly endless miles of corridor, they'd ended up in a maze of pipes that had once supplied water to the old city. What little they could see with their torches suggested that these pipes were rusted and decayed, and likely no longer in use. The room, for want of a better word, seemed to stretch on forever in all directions, being nothing but an endless maze of pipes.

"Where is she?" Amelia snarled. "I know she's here."

"You're right there." Came a voice from above. There was a crack, then the sergeant standing next to her suddenly keeled over backwards, a neat hole in their faceplate.

"She's up there!" Amelia shouted. She grabbed her rifle and fired, the gun bucking wildly in her hands and spraying bullets everywhere. There was a cacophony of metallic dings and clangs as the bullets ricochet off the pipes above. "Shoot her!" She shouted. "Shoot her now!" Several more soldiers opened fire, shooting wildly into the darkness, while a few more, mainly the more experienced troopers who knew the XS rifle better, hit the floor.

"Not even close!" The voice came again. Another soldier firing wildly into the darkness, keeled over, their rifle spraying wildly before stopping.

"She's over there!" Amelia shouted, turning her rifle in a different direction and firing again into the darkness. The shots rang out, then the rifle went silent as the last of the bullets ran out. Around her everyone else stopped firing. Amelia turned to look at the soldier next to her. "Give me your spare clip, soldier."

"But-" He began.

"Tomy damn, it, just do it!" She shouted.

"Yes sir!" He shouted and threw her the clip. She grabbed it and slapped it into the rifle.

"Come on out, Victoria!" She shouted. "You have no idea who you're dealing with!" Around her, the soldiers closest to her were slowly backing away.

"Do I?" Came the reply, echoing around the pipes in a way that made it impossible to determine where it was coming from. "Amelia Snow, agent of the secret ideological organization A-X. Age early twenties. Specialties are infiltration, data retrieval and posing for compromising photos. You joined A-X for the money and power. You wear a padded bra and lacy-"

"SHUT UP!" Amelia shouted as she opened fire into the darkness above her, her rifle bucking and kicking in her hands, sending the bullets flying around wildly. Around her the other soldiers opened fire into the darkness above.

"Bang!" Another soldier, the other Sergeant collapsed.

"We're getting slaughtered in here!" One of them shouted. "We have to retreat!"

"I don't care!" Amelia shouted. "We will kill her! Even if it takes every last damn one of us!"

-----

Leaving the rest of the squad behind, Desmond slipped into the room where they'd hidden the communicator. It was a part of a long and complicated network that had been their only connection to the outside world. It connected via cable to another communicator at the base of the stairwell they had entered through which then connected to the Gustav, which had a narrow-band link to the Whale Shark, which could broadcast to the rest of the world.

They'd hidden it in such an out of the way place to reduce the chances of it being found by the enemy, and so that they could have an "if all else fails" backup. Right now, it appeared that all else had failed, and Desmond definitely needed the backup. The operation had to succeed, he thought.

He activated the communicator, which opened a direct link to the Whale Shark's bridge. "Come in, Warlord." He began. "This is Desmond, can you hear me?"

There was a hiss of static and then a crackly reply form a technician. "This is the Warlord-"

Desmond cut him off. "Patch me through to central command immediately!" He shouted.

"Y-yes commander." The tech stammered out.

There was a patch of static, then a refined, educated sounding voice on the other end. "This is Xonvier Ebonflack here."

Ebonflack, his faithful second in command. Perfect. He knew he could rely on him. "This is Desmond."

"Why hello, Desmond." Ebonflack replied. "How are things in the Dark Continent?"

"The operation has gone bad." He replied. "I need reinforcements immediately. Send the Pariah and the Rouge, with their full compliments immediately."

"I'm sorry, Commander." He replied. "But your line appears to be breaking up. I'm afraid I can't make any sense of your transmission." The transmission dropped out.

Desmond knew he was lying. He could hear Ebonflack clearly, and he had no doubt that Ebonflack could hear him just as clearly. Damn him, he thought. He'd been outmanoeuvred. Ebonflack could say he'd died a tragic death for the cause while in the depths of the Dark Continent, and that they should now move on and do great things in the name of the cause and his sacrifice… Damn!

He opened a new link to the Warlord. "Yes sir?" The tech began.

"Tell the captain that he's not to go anywhere unless I and I alone order him to do such. Is that understood?"

"Yes Commander." The tech replied.

"And he is to ignore any orders that come from central command. It appears that we may have been compromised."

"Yes commander." The tech said.

"I will contact you later." He finished and ended the transmission.

The sound of gunfire outside the door grabbed his attention. No time now. He fired several shots into the communicator to stop the enemy from using it to find them. Abandoning his men outside, he dashed out the other exit to the room, vanishing into the darkness.

From hear on in, all else but revenge was irrelevant, he thought. He'd show them. He'd show them all. "I'm coming." He said to himself.

-----

Sandra had been in some horrible places before, but she decided that the sublevels below the Old City was the worst of the worst of them. It was dark and it was cramped, with nothing but concrete walls, metal ducts, rusted pipes and the odd functional light to relive the monotony of the scenery. The company wasn't any good either.

There was Rose, who she was growing to increasingly dislike. There was something about her that just irritated Sandra. She seemed to be just too keen on helping them, especially after everyone else had been more interested in locking them up. The fact that she'd apparently tried to seduce Rick on their first night here didn't sit well with her either. She was probably point-scoring, Sandra figured. She wanted to resolve this all herself and look better then everyone else.

The soldiers were little more then faceless mooks, she figured. She'd been a police officer before, and knew cops, and these guys weren't cops. They were clearly well-trained counter-insurgency officers. The fact that they seemed to be the "minimum response" for any policing situation also didn't sit well. Domestic dispute? Send round a bunch of heavily-armed goons. Kids stealing your hubcaps? Heavily armed goons. Cat in a tree? Well, she hadn't seen much in the way of pets or trees yet, but she could take a good guess.

At least Rick was being his usual self. That is to say he was hanging as close to Rose as possible, probably to watch her bum wiggle as she walked. At least he was taking the odd break where possible to sketch their surroundings. Typical.

"Hold it" Rose ordered, throwing her train of thought for a second. As one, the troops stopped. "I thought I heard something."

Sandra was quiet, listening. In the distance, she could hear some sort of distant rumbling noise, like thunder. "Gunfire?" She asked.

"Could be." Rose said. "Yeah... gunfire. Sounds like a lot of automatic weaponry being discharged in a relatively enclosed space."

"Great" Sandra muttered.

"Why is it that we never meet anyone who's glad to see us?" Rick asked. 'Everywhere we go, it's firearms and Zoids in our faces."

"Life, I guess." Sandra muttered.

"Shh..." Rose said, and pulled out a communicator. "O'Bannon to ops, do we have squads ahead of our current position in corridor White 159?"

There was a pause for several seconds. "Negative, captain." A voice on the other end replied. "White 159 should be clear"

"We have gunfire ahead." Rose replied. "Possibility of intruders and another group. Proceeding to check it out."

"Copy that." The voice replied. "Do you need backup?"

"Negative." Rose finished. "Will asses and request if needed." She put the communicator down. "Let's go."

The group proceeded slowly down the corridor, the sound of gunfire increasing as they got nearer. It sounded like a number of people all firing at once, with what sounded like a woman occasionally shouting. Stopping at a corner, Rick and Rose peered around before ducking back.

"What have you got?" Sandra asked.

"Looks like a number of the goons in black with assault rifles firing into the roof." Rick said. "And there's a blonde woman with them. I think it's the girl form the hospital."

"Several more of them are lying on the ground." Rose added. "But I can't tell if they're dead, injured or looking for cover."

"Those are likely XS 10mm autorifles that they have." Sandra said. "Great rate of fire, hopeless accuracy and a kick like a mule. They're dangerous due to the way they fill the air around the user with lead. Any idea who they're firing at?"

"Can't see." Rick replied. "But who ever they are, we can assume they're on our side."

"Vic?" Sandra asked.

"I guess." Rick said. "They were firing into the roof, and that would be where she's lurking."

"Right." Rose said. "Here's what we do. There are several other entrances to the room. While they're distracted, we loop around and enter through them, hopefully surrounding the enemy while they're distracted."

"Sounds like the proverbial plan to me." Rick said.

"Well, in absence of a better idea, I'll go for it." Sandra said. "Just wish I had my old SWAT battesuit."

"Let's go." Rose said. Before they could move, a burst of gunfire dug into the concrete wall next to here, sending her scurrying back further down the hall. "They've spotted us!" She shouted.

"I'm dimly aware of that." Sandra shouted. "What do we do?"

"I'm open to suggestions." She said.

"Hey Sandra." Rick spoke up. He had his back pressed to the wall. "I was thinking we could try a variant of our usual Zoid battle plan in this situation."

"What, Run around like we're nuts until someone thinks of something better?"

"It may work." Rick said. "Besides, if that is Vic up there, she might see what's going on and recognise it as us in action."

"Kill all our birds with one stone." Rose said. "I like it."

"Right." Sandra could see she was outnumbered in the common sense versus stupidity stakes. "Here's what we do. Rick, Rose, you two run that way, firing at whatever you see. I'll go round the other way and do something stupid."

"So what do we do after that?" Rose asked.

"After?" Both she and Rick looked surprised.

"Our plans usually don't go that far." Rick admitted.

"I guess once they're good and confused you call your boys in." Sandra finished.

"Right." Rose said. "Let's go."

Sandra dashed down a hallway, then turned towards the room. Keeping her back to the wall, she analysed the setup. The virtual wall of pipes had four large open gaps at pretty even points. Before the final one was a derelict pump or air conditioner or filter or some sort of large metal box. Perfect. The secret to what she was about to do was to run and keep running.

Pulling out her two machine pistols, she burst into a run. Heading up the street, she twisted her arms and head to face in towards the courtyard. As the first gap came up, she sighted on the A-X troops. Right. She opened fire, aiming less at the soldiers and more generally towards them. Two men were hit and fell, probably more form the force of the impact then what her light-caliber bullets were doing to their armour. Not stopping as the wall came up, she held off the triggers for an instant.

Gap two. Fire. Squeezing the triggers again, the guns opened up on the troops. Another pair of troops were hit, but she couldn't be sure if they were down or just winged. She didn't care. The point was to get them pinned down and unwilling to move, not kill them. The latter would be a nice bonus, however. As the second gap ended, she dropped the clips out of the pistols and slammed fresh ones in.

Third gap came up. This was the vital one. By now, they might have figured out what was going on. If they had recovered from the initial shock, then it would be all over for her. If not, she had one more chance at this. Not bothering to aim this time or to see what her shots did, she just fired into the gap and ran.

Reaching the final gap, she leapt up onto the box, then again up onto the line of the pipes. Below her, the A-X troops opened fire into the empty fourth gap, just as she thought. Leaping through the air, Sandra opened fire again, spraying the troops with gunfire before the two pistols clicked empty. Sailing over the wall, she tumbled and rolled, hitting the ground on her feet, somehow.

She could hear the sound of shouting behind her, followed by more automatic gunfire. This time it sounded different, so she suspected it was the locals taking advantage of her little distraction to attack the A-X troops in force. Looking out from behind a corner, she saw the A-X soldiers engaged in combat with what she figured was Rose's troops. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, she opened fire on the nearest enemies, before ducking behind cover again.

-----

Vic watched the fight from a hiding spot above. Both the A-X soldiers and the CS units seemed to be pretty happy with fighting each other. Amelia seemed to have run off to hide in a corner. They'd keep each other happy for a while, she figured, which was more then enough time for her to get away.

She dashed off into the darkness, following the voice in the back of her head that was calling to her.

-----

Sandra advanced cautiously towards the middle of the room. There were a number of dead A-X soldiers lying around, as well as several wounded Counter-terrorism soldiers who were having their injuries tended to. The battle, such as it was, had been rather one sided. The A-X soldiers were very disorganised and confused, and the locals had been attacking from all sides. More notably, the enemy had been engaged in a gun battle with someone before, who had inflicted a number of casualties on them. Their rifles hadn't helped much either, being pretty bad for hitting anything.

Sandra had took in upon herself to look for any survivors. A-X agents had something of a reputation for fighting to the death, and this lot had lived up to that. There were a few that she was convinced weren't so much dead as lying low and looking for a good opportunity to escape. Certainly if she had a number of people firing wildly into the darkness next to her with others firing back, its what she would do.

She found a live one, behind a pipe. It wasn't another soldier, however. It was the so-called Alice Boston, the blonde woman who had abducted Dr Cortez. She was wearing a blood-stained jumpsuit, and was nervously clutching a pistol.

Before Sandra could react, she leaped to her feet and shouted. "You won't take me alive!" She grabbed the pistol, stuck it to her own forehead and fired.

Click.

"Damn it!" She shouted and squeezed the trigger again. Click, click click. She threw the pistol at the ground. "Stupid pistol!" She shouted. "It's so unfair! Nothing ever goes right for me!" She collapsed to her knees, sobbing.

"What's happening over here?" Rose shouted. She and a soldier were standing behind her, pointing their guns at the woman.

"The young lady was just surrendering herself to us, isn't that right Alice?"

"It's Amelia." She snapped as she stood.

"Where's Vic?" Sandra snapped before anyone else could say a thing.

"That little freak!" Amelia shouted. "I should have killed her when I had the chance, but oh no, Desmond needed her for his big plan! Now look where that got us!"

"Whoah, harsh." Rick muttered. He was sketching.

"Where is she?" Sandra asked.

"I don't know!" Amelia shouted. "I just want to catch her and then kill her and jump up and down on her until-"

"I'm sure you do, but we'll need to find her first." Rose interjected.

"Somebody has anger management issues." Rick whispered to Sandra, who nodded.

"How would I know?" She replied. "She ran off into the darkness... For all I know, she could be following the commander."

"The commander?" Rose asked. "Where's he?"

"He ran off to some secret hanger or to get reinforcements or something. I don't know." She said, then crossed her arms, sulkily. "He got himself into this mess, he can get himself out of this. Lousy no good... thinks he's so high and mighty just because he's the leader of a secret ideological organisation yet it's his plan that gets us all killed."

"Secret hanger?" Sandra asked. "Any ideas, Rose?" Rose, however, wasn't where she'd been a second ago. She was over the other side of the room, frantically shouting something into a communicator. "Damn it." She muttered, then turned to an officer. "Hey you! Look after this woman."

"Yes, sir." The soldier replied, hesitantly. He'd just seen this woman gun down a number of enemy troops while running around firing a gun in each hand with good accuracy for someone with only one eye. So he wasn't about to argue the fact that she really had no authority over him.

"Um..." Rick asked Amelia as the soldier cuffed her.

"Yes?" She replied, weakly.

"Is this your normal uniform?" He said, indicating to the jumpsuit. "I mean, what you wear while on duty?"

"Well... yes, I suppose." She replied.

"Cool." Rick scribbled something on his pad. "And your specialty?"

"Infiltration and data retrieval." She said.

"So for a normal field operation you'd wear, say, a slinky evening gown."

"Shoulderless, of course." She replied, confused.

"Thanks for that." Rick smiled. "You've been a great prisoner." The solder took her away.

Sandra stomped angrily over to Rose. "What the hell is going on here, Rose?" She asked. "What's this about a secret hanger? And before you say 'nothing', the instant she said it you leaped five meters to the left and began muttering into a communicator."

"Hagen and her commander are likely heading towards one of the lower levels of the new city." She replied. "We've got a special research unit there that studies captured Zoids. Heck, we've still got the wreckage of some of Chrom's Zoids in there. Maybe he thinks there's something he can use in there, or thinks it's less heavily guarded." She replied.

"Yeah. Of course it is." Sandra said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"It's our best lead." Rose replied. "I've alerted the security forces in the area. Hopefully we can catch Vic and their commander before anything else happens."

-----

Desmond ran.

He'd thought that he'd left the locals behind when he abandoned the communicator. A lot of concentrated, but directed running had bought him into the path of Sergeant Jaman's squad. This meant two things to him; the first being that he was on the right track, the second being that he now had a guard squadron. He was short a member, Private Wong having apparently never made it back.

Desmond hadn't heard anything else from any other units, neither had Jaman. However, they both had heard a lot of gunfire as they had run through the underworld of the city, which suggested that their enemies had found a number of their units. From his studies of the Quentin Journal, he'd heard about how the enemy had ferreted out all of Chrom's units as they had tried to seize strategic resources across the city. Clearly they had planned for another attempted coup. Very clever.

He had to admire these people. They could have made great allies. They had a devious, paranoid mindset that would have worked so well with his.

Now it seemed that the enemy was on his tail. One of Jaman's squad had been shot through the head by an unknown sniper. Rather then stay and fight, they'd ran. He knew that they'd need all the troops they could muster to take the objective.

The voice in his head became louder as they descended further into the city. Yes, he could feel it. They were getting closer. Soon, he told himself. Soon he would show them all.

There was a scream of pain from the back of the squad. Glancing behind him, Desmond could see the trooper at the back of the squad collapse and vanish into the gloom as the distance between him and the others increased. "Keep running!" He shouted. "Don't turn back! Don't worry about the others! Remember the cause!"

There was a gunshot and another soldier collapsed. The others kept running. "Commander!" Jaman shouted. "There is a trapdoor ahead that leads down to the bay!"

"Excellent!" Desmond shouted. After a minute or so, he saw the trapdoor; it stood out rust-brown against the concrete grey floor. "Help me with this, Sergeant."

"Yes commander." Jaman replied. "The rest of you, Cover us! Shoot anything that comes near us!" The pair of them prized the door open while the soldiers watched. It was apparent that Jaman's squad entering it earlier was the first time it had been used in ages. The Aged hinges squealed in protest and shed rust until it opened enough to allow one man to slip through.

"Good work." Desmond replied. "I'll go down. You will cover me. Do not allow anyone to reach me." Peering down the trapdoor, he found a ladder descending into the depths below. "You have done well, Jaman. You will be remembered as a great hero for the cause."

"Yes, commander", he said as Desmond closed the door.

Leaving them behind, Desmond descended into the darkness below. As he descended, he heard the sound of gunfire break out above him. Jaman was doing his job, he thought. When this was over, he'd be remembered as a hero for this. Reaching the base of the ladder, he found himself in a narrow, dark corridor. it was old, and clearly unused. Given how secure this bay was, he suspected that the locals were unaware of its existence.

He moved slowly down the corridor. As he continued, he noticed the voice in his head getting louder, more intense, closer. He'd known this feeling before with other Zoids, but never like this.

Ahead he saw a gap in the wall where light was streaming in. Peering out, he looked down to a huge bay. There was a massive pair of doors, emblazoned with a huge, five-pointed red star. A number of troops were standing outside them, as well as a black-and-green Heldigunner. This had to be the place, he thought. Nowhere else would be that heavily guarded.

"Eyebrow"

There was a sound of footsteps behind him. He looked up, and turned around. Victoria Hagen was standing there, a blood-stained knife in her hand. Her grey fatigues were torn in places, and, like the knife, splattered with blood. She was grinning, a distressing, insane grin that made her look ready to bite, and her pupils were shrug almost to dots, despite the darkness.

"You heard it too, didn't you?" He began. "That voice in the back of your head. It drew you down here, drew you to itself." he looked at her. She just stood there. "I heard it. That... that creature in there. It called to me. It awaits me. It needs a mind to control it, to give it direction. A mind like mine."

"A Darth." She muttered.

"Yes." He replied. "And you... an artificial Darth, I suppose. You hear the voice but you can't control it." He grinned. "But I can. I will re-awaken it, and with it, I shall reign supreme! None shall stop me!" He laughed in an insane, megalomaniacal way. This was it, he thought. His dream was about to become a reality. Soon, he would rule the world.

Hagen ran at him, trying to stab him with the knife. It clearly wasn't her weapon of choice, given the inexpert way she wielded it, he thought. He stepped to one side, and chopped at her arm, causing her to drop the knife. She struck him in the stomach, momentarily winding him, but he recovered and hit her in the face, knocking her back. She picked herself up and wiped off her face, smearing blood across her cheek, and grinned. Then, she charged, crashing straight into his midsection. Again he grabbed her, and threw her off, sending her crashing to the floor.

"I was going to leave you here so you could see my triumph." He sneered. "But now I'll have to kill you here." He reached for his gun, only to find it missing. It must have come off during the fight or... he looked up. Hagen was standing, a huge pistol in her hand. His huge pistol, he realized. With the laser sight pointed straight at his forehead. The way she looked at him made him realise something. She'd been the wrong choice for this mission. She was completely mad.

"Hey." She began. "You've got Bigasaur on your face."

"What?"

"Bang."

-----

Sandra had lost track of the time. It was easy to do in an underground city; with no real sky and no real outdoors, loosing track of time came easily. The city's massive overhead lights cycled to give an impression of different times of day, but it wasn't the same. She was somewhat surprised to emerge from the shadowy underground to find the deep blue lights overhead that indicated night. Then she'd checked her watch and found it was past nine pm.

Rose had taken the pair of them and Amelia back to the command center that she'd been running the operation from. Amelia had been taken away for "questioning" (Which Sandra figured was a euphemism for interrogation) while she and Rick got to make a number of witness statements. it was all the things she remembered that she hated about police work, but with more guns pointed at her.

They'd been 'released' into the comfort of the cafeteria where they'd gone back to coffee and snacks. For a while, they sat in silence, exhausted by what they'd been through, until Rick spoke. "That, uh, thing you did with the guns. You know, running and leaping and firing like that."

"Yeah?" Sandra said, looking up from her coffee.

"That, uh, was pretty brave of you. I mean, running by all those guys, firing like mad and making yourself a target like that." He said.

"I just did what I had to do." Sandra said. "Besides, I'm always putting myself out for people who don't give to pieces of carpet for me."

"Yeah well... You still did a good thing" Rick said. "It also looked really cool." He added. "I mean, with your coat billowing out behind you like that." He pulled out his pad. "Its a great visual, and I'd like to use it."

"Go ahead." Sandra shrugged. "At least someone's getting something out of all this mess."

"Thanks for that." Rick said, and began sketching.

Sandra looked up as Rose entered. "Speaking of people getting the best out of this..." She muttered.

"Hi guys." Rose began, and took a seat. "We've been speaking with Amelia-"

"I'll bet." Sandra muttered.

"-and she's been going over the numbers of the enemy force with us." Rose continued, apparently ignoring Sandra. "I figure that we've accounted for some eighty percent of the enemy troopers."

"Accounted for?" Rick asked. "Captured or killed or both?"

"Killed." Rose replied. "So far, Amelia's the only prisoner we have. The rest of their troopers seem to have decided to fight to the death."

"Surprisingly neat for you then." Sandra muttered. "You don't have to worry about the prisoners."

"Amelia says that there were three senior members of the organisation in on this operation, herself, their supreme commander and one of their top Zoid pilots." Rose continued, ignoring Sandra's comments. "Now the Zoid pilot was the one Hagen killed with the scalpel." They both remembered the man they'd seen carried out of the hospital with something sticking out of his neck. Now they knew. It had seemed strangely amusing at the time.

"And their commander?" Sandra asked.

"Still missing." She replied. "However, we have a good idea where he may be. Likewise, we haven't yet found any trace of Vic, but we're working on it."

"Great." Sandra said. "So I suppose we're up at the crack of dawn for another exciting round of running around and being shot at, right?"

"For the moment, no." Rose said. "We're going to sort a few things out, and then begin the arrangements for getting you two back home."

"After you get Vic back, right?" Rick asked.

"Of course."

-----

Whale King Hydra

Above the Dark Continent

2200 Hours

"Well?" Pie asked. His back was to the window, looking out over the dark landscape below. John Shepherd stood behind him, saluting.

"We've had no further communication from Captain Desmond since yesterday, sir." John replied. "All efforts to raise him have since failed."

"I see." Pie replied. Desmond's last message, from midday yesterday, had indicated that he had begun the next stage of his operation. He would check in within 24 hours, and he was now well past that deadline. "And have you tried contacting his superiors?"

"Yes sir." John replied. He knew that was a lie. He had contacted someone about Desmond's status. The reply he'd gotten was that Desmond had been 'removed from his position.' He knew enough to know what that meant. "They haven't heard from him either."

"I see." Pie replied. "So we are to assume that he's lost?"

"That is what it would appear, sir." John replied.

Pie turned around. "A tragic, tragic loss." He said, and smiled. "Still, we can't be affected by minor setbacks like this."

Minor setbacks? John thought. "No sir."

"Set course for the target area. I'll brief the officers tomorrow morning at 0700."

"Yes sir." John saluted and left.

"Soon, John, soon it will be all over." Pie said. "And what a great day that will be." He turned and walked out of his office. Instead of retiring to his quarters, however, he took a different route, descending through the ship until he reached its cavernous Zoid bays. As he descended, he could see the various Zoids of his unit laid out below him. Strike-Zillas, Evil Scorpions, Super Zillas, Claws, Sabers... but one stood out amongst all the others. A massive shape, larger then the rest.

He stepped out at the bay's ground level and approached the massive Zoid. It appeared to be a Madthunder, but it was obviously different to the norm. Whereas a normal Madthunder was a light grey on the top with a dull grey underside, this one was white on top and black underneath. It was a one of a kind, the legendary Thunder Trictops.

He walked up to the massive Zoid, craning his neck to look up at its massive weapons arrays and the two huge drills that formed its horns. "Soon it will be time to end all this." he said, apparently talking to the Zoid. "Very, very soon."


	25. Fight Scene

Dark Continent

0600 Hours

John Shepherd's favourite place had always been in the cockpit of a Zoid. He'd piloted many different Zoids over the course of his career in the Vinterlands army, but his favourite of them had to be his current Zoid. Fuunsaki, his Evil Pegasus, one of the most powerful machines in the Vinterlands army.

At the moment, it was flying over the bleak grey lands of the Dark Continent, hidden in the pre-dawn darkness. Following behind it was a trio of Storm Tigers, then a flock of Dragon Flies. Despite the conditions, they stayed close to the ground, trying to hide their presence.

Fuunsaki's sensors bleeped, detecting an object ahead. Checking it against the map coordinates he'd been given, John confirmed it as the target. Diving into a valley, his Pegasus and the Storm Tigers closed on a small, barely visible bunker built into the side of a cliff. The Dragon Flies broke away, leaving the others free to attack.

"Fire." John commanded. As one, the squad opened fire on the bunker. Shells, beams and missiles tore through the concrete and steel structure, reducing it to rubble. The Tigers swooped away, while John hovered in front of the ruined structure for a moment, surveying the damage. When he was confident that it was destroyed, he ordered the Zoid to rejoin the others.

He opened a secure channel to Pie's Whale King. "Mission accomplished, sir." He reported. "The bunker has been destroyed. I do not believe our squad was detected before they attacked."

"Excellent work, Major." He replied. "Return to the ship. We'll commence the attack as soon as your squad is ready"

"Yes sir." John replied.

-----

Gate Control Centre

Old City, Dark Continent

0615 Hours

The Gate Control Centre was important to the defences of the city for numerous reasons. Besides controlling the massive gates that provided one of only two known entrances to the city, it was also the hub for control of all external security. The control centre was the hub of a network of external monitoring stations that would provide the city with advance warning of an attack.

Major Kurt Dremmler was the duty commander and, as such, currently in charge of all external defences. He was a stern looking man, tall and of an average build, with short, dark hair that was beginning to grey and bluish-grey eyes. He'd spent all his career thus far in the city's external defence control. Right now he was looking at possibly the biggest dilemma of his career.

He leaned on the back of a technician's seat. "Well?" He asked.

"Nothing sir." The tech replied. "They're now fifteen minutes past check in and not a peep."

"Damn." He swore. The number one monitoring station, which covered the only land approach to the city's front gates, had missed their 0600 check in "And the others?"

"They're still all coming in fine." The tech replied. "No reports of any activity."

"Major!" A tech called form the other end of the control centre. "I've got something!"

He walked over to the station. "Well?"

"The IR, Radar, MAD and Seismic sensors at the far end of the valley are going nuts, sir." He reported as Kurt examined his screens. "We've got something coming. Looks big." The sensors showed a trio of large 'blobs' and numerous smaller ones, all moving slowly towards the valley that lead to the front gates of the city.

"Let's see..." Kurt leaned over and flicked several switches. The display went through various sensory options before switching over to visual. A video display came on, swinging around an arc to locate the source of the disturbance. It stopped, focusing on a large, blurry lump. The camera refocussed, zooming back to reveal a massive from lumbering slowly forwards. It was a Zoid, with a huge body supported by four thick legs, and a long neck topped with a comparatively tiny head. Four massive cannons sprouted from its side.

"What is it, sir?" The tech asked.

"Ultrasaurus." He replied, nervously. "One of the biggest damn Zoids there is." The camera swung around to show another Zoid next to it, a hunched-over, gorilla like machine. "And an Iron Kong." A pair of Gustavs, both heavily laden, followed them.

"Sir?"

Before he could reply, the Iron Kong stopped and the fired its two back-mounted missiles. Behind the Ultrasaurus, a pair of smoke trails indicated that there was a second Kong. "Sound the alarm!" He shouted. "We are under attack!"

-----

"Wha? Alarm?" Rick muttered to himself as he sat up in bed. He'd just woken up to the sound of sirens blaring in his room and, he suspected, in everyone else's rooms as well. He hopped out of his bed and pulled a shirt on, and then knocked loudly on the door. "Hey!" he shouted. "What's going on out there?"

There was no reply. "Hey!" He shouted, knocking harder. "I need an answer in here!"

Nothing.

"Dangit." He muttered. He grabbed his Zoid pilot suit from his cupboard and hastily put it on. It was what he always went for in an emergency, and it usually worked. He also quietly wished Rose had let him and Sandra keep their guns. They probably would be very useful about now.

Finishing with the suit, he opened the door with the card that Rose had left behind. Slipping out into the corridor, he could see that there was nobody around, but he could hear the sound of troops running in the background, as well as the ever-present alarms. He could also hear a banging sound from Sandra's room. Yeah, she was awake, he thought. And probably thrilled at being woken up so early in the morning by the sirens too.

He swiped the card through the reader, then opened the door. Sandra was standing there in her pilot suit, glaring evilly at him. "'Bout frelling time, you big tool." She muttered.

"Sorry took so long." He replied with a grin. "I would have come earlier, but I needed to get some clothes on."

"Thank you for small things." She muttered. "So any idea what the frell is happening?"

"None whatsoever." Rick replied. "I haven't heard a thing."

"And has anyone come for you yet?"

"Nope." Rick replied. "There doesn't appear to be anyone around. I think they've all run off to do... well, whatever it is they do."

"Great." Sandra replied. "The carpet hits the fan and we're left here."

"You don't think this could be something to do with Vic?" Rick asked.

"Naw, if it was, Rose would have dragged us out of here by now o use as human shields or feed us a fresh load of carpet." She replied. "Besides, I don't think even Vic could set off this many alarms."

"So what do we do now?" Rick asked.

"Well, three plans occur to me." Sandra said. "The first is that we do the sensible thing and stay in our rooms and wait for someone to tell us what's happening. The big disadvantage with this plan is so far they've been reluctant to explain anything to us, and I suspect they're not going to start now."

"Besides, us and sensible just doesn't work." Rick replied. "So option number two?"

"We grab the first passer by and shout at him until he tells us something." She continued. "Problem here is that I doubt they'd take well to shouting. And they have guns while we don't"

"Not good." Rick replied. "So what's behind door number three?"

"We sneak off and try to find someone in charge like Rose or De Leon-"

"De Lyon."

"Whatever. Once we find them, we shout at them until they tell us what's going on."

"Funnily enough, that's what I used to do to my editor." Rick replied. "So I say we go for it."

The two of them slipped down the hallway, trying to remain quiet as they went. The sound of marching soldiers ahead alerted them, leaving them to duck back around a corner and wait in silence as they went past. Finally, Sandra spoke. "So, Rick, what happened when you shouted at your editor? Did you get a result?"

"Well, I don't have a comics job right now, do I?" Rick replied.

-----

Sel was surprised when she was woken by the alarms. Alarms like that simply didn't go off. The only time they did was during a drill. The only other alternative was… No, it couldn't be, she thought. Somebody slammed her door opened and shouted. "We're under attack! Briefing, now!" Before she could say anything, he slammed it shut, presumably to move onto shouting in the next door.

An attack on the city. They'd probably find some way to trace this all back to her. Great. If she wasn't done for before, she would be now.

She rose and dressed as quickly as possible, trying to reach a passably presentable state given the circumstances. Stepping outside, she saw Matt, and the rest of her squad waiting for her.

"Anyone know what's happening?" Bob began, for some reason looking the best of them.

"City under attack, I thought you heard." Alex replied, looking by far the worst.

"Strange that they've let us out." Matt commented. "Given that we've been under a virtual house arrest since we got back."

"Things must be bad." Alex replied while yawning. "Either that or it's just a ploy to get us to confess to something."

"Let's go." Sel simply replied. She didn't want to think about the implications of what may be happening. If it was an attack on the city then someone in the outside world must have discovered its location. The most likely way for them to do that would be through the Quentin journal, which it had been her job to hunt down and eliminate any remaining copies of. So she would probably somehow end up with the blame for this.

Of course, any attack on the city was a bad thing. That their safe sanctuary, their haven from the outside world was under threat was more important then her own concerns about her future. She mentally scolded herself for being so selfish in at a time like this. She still couldn't shake the feeling that, regardless of what happened she was in trouble.

The briefing room was packed to capacity when they arrived. She and her squad managed to find seats at the back. Listening carefully she could make out snatches of conversation between the gathered pilots. "Attack… outsiders… bombardment… enemies at the gates… giant Zoid… Kandrak…"

She also noticed that Bekka was still sulking and silent, as she'd been since they got back. She still felt bad about that. Bekka had been under a lot of pressure not to mention her relationship to Rick at all. Sel had requested that she do that out of concern for both Bekka's and her own careers. She'd figured that if the worst came to the worst, Bekka, Alex and Bob could probably salvage their careers by playing nice and lumping her with all the blame. Still, it was hard on her, being forced apart form him by military regulations.

She'd never asked how 'involved' she and Rick were. She felt it'd be a little tasteless to do such now.

The crowd fell silent as a woman took the podium at the front of the room. She instantly recognised her; while of average height, she had an athletic build and firm body that belied her years. She had shoulder-length brown hair and dark brown eyes. A pair of diagonal scars ran down her right cheek, scars similar to the face paint designs that Sel preferred. She wore a standard uniform, an officer's cap now perched on the podium.

It had always surprised Sel that the command of her mission wasn't given to her. Maybe they just wanted to keep her at home for just such an emergency… like if she failed. Sel quickly glanced at Bekka; the other woman's face betrayed no emotion at seeing her mother addressing the crowd.

"Listen up, people." She shouted. "What you are hearing is true. Our city has come under attack." There was a round of murmurs form the crowd. "At the moment, the main gate is under attack from a trio of heavy Zoids." Behind him, a holographic map activated, showing the layout of the outside of the city. A trio of red dots appeared, showing the position of the enemy Zoids. They were at the end of the Twilight alley, essentially shooting straight down it at the front gates.

"The enemy has been identified as an Ultrasaurus and a pair of Iron Kongs." She continued. A pair of rotating images replaced the map, showing the Ultrasaurus and iron Kong, highlighting various features such as weapons. "At present, they're attacking from standoff range with their long-range cannons and missiles. Additionally, there are a pair of Gustavs stationed with them, probably providing ammo reloads. In turn, they are being escorted by a number of smaller Zoids, probably medium size units like Command Wolves."

There was another murmur around the crowd, with mutters about taking on an Ultrasaurus. Somebody in front of Sel said something about needing a Deathsaurer to stop it. She winced inwardly.

"In addition, our own air force is being tied up by the enemy's air support. They have a number of Reddlers, a trio of Battle Cougars and at least one Evil Pegasus. None of our pilots have been able to break away from the fight to get a shot at the enemy. Thus we need to take them out on the ground."

"Sir." Major De Lyon spoke. "How are we meant to approach an Ultrasaurus? Especially when it's bombarding our front gates? Our troops would be slaughtered before thye could attack."

Before she could reply, somebody stood. Sel recognised her immediately. Rose O'Bannon, one of her crèche siblings and fellow officers. She and Rose both served directly under Major De Lyon. She'd suspected that Rose had also been surprised when Sel had gotten the assignment, but at least hadn't shown it. "I have an idea, sir."

"Yes captain?" the commander asked.

"My special unit, sir. We could launch them out the top Reddler launch bay and then flank the enemy position." Rose explained. "If I can distract them for long enough, they might need to break off the bombardment to deal with us. That way the rest of the army can make it out the front gates and begin their attack."

"Good thinking, captain." She replied, narrowing her eyes to look directly at Sel. "I'm giving you the go-ahead for your plan."

Sel could tell that Rose would be beaming. The two had once been friends, but had grown apart over the years. The biggest problem was Rose herself. She was, in Sel's opinion, incredibly self-centred and self-important. She'd probably been looking for an opportunity to do something like this just to prove how good she was.

"Everyone, I want your Zoids at the elevators in fifteen! With any luck, the front doors should last that long! Go! Now!"

As one, the room's occupants stood to leave. As Sel stood, she heard Major De Lyon shouting for her form across the room. "Captain Magyari!"

She turned and saluted. "Yes sir."

"You unit has been assigned as a reserve support unit for the core and the access elevators." He began. "I'm returning control over lieutenants Kay and Carlyle's squads to you, since you're back with us."

"Yes sir." Sel replied. Translation: You're still under suspicion, so you're being left behind where we can keep an eye on you.

Rose walked past her. "Don't feel to bad about it, Sel." She said. "We all must do our duties." Translation: I'm not you and I'm loving it.

Point scoring as normal. "You be careful out there." She replied.

"Oh, I'll be fine." She said, and left.

"What's happening, captain?" Matt asked as the rest of the squad joined her.

"We've been assigned to reserve duty." Sel replied. "I suspect we're still not to be trusted, even under these circumstances."

"It's no problem to me." Alex quipped. "I wasn't in any rush to get stepped on by an Ultrasaurus anyway."

"They didn't tell you anything about Rick or Sandra, did they?" Matt asked.

"Sadly, no." Sandra replied. "I'm just going to assume that, for the moment, they're safe."

-----

Rick and Sandra were lost.

The pair of them had set out to find someone in authority to shout a few questions at. Instead they'd gotten sidetracked with trying to avoid the local authorities and ended up wandering around aimlessly trying to find a route that got them to someone important, while avoiding patrols of people with guns.

So they'd gotten lost very quickly.

It was relatively easy to do. They weren't in the city proper right now, rather in a huge complex that included barracks, briefing rooms, armouries, Zoid hangers and the massive Whale King shipyards. In between all that was a literal maze of corridors, hallways, gantries, stairways, balconies and tunnels that were more then just a bit confusing. The fact that there were people running everywhere wasn't any real help. Rose's card gave them plenty of access, which also meant that there were more options for getting lost.

Sandra's biggest fear was the fact that she had no idea how high up they were. She suspected that they might have somehow slipped into the nightmarish maze that was the sub-levels that existed between the new and old cities. She'd recently been there while searching for Vic, and had no desire to return.

"Hokay, how about this one?" Rick asked, indicating to a heavy metal door at the end of their current hallway.

"Why not?" Sandra replied, shrugging. "We've tried just about every other damned tooly damned door we've stumbled across. Why not stick our necks out a little more?" She added. "I mean, we're probably already completely tooled regardless of whatever happens, so why not throw ourselves in a little deeper?"

"If I recall, this was your idea." Rick said.

"Yeah. I should know never to listen to a thing I say."

"So open it?"

"Why not?" Sandra said. "We might just find something. Probably Vic at this rate."

They stepped out onto a gantry, overlooking a Zoid bay. Or, more to the point, a series of Zoid bays. They stretched off, eventually curving around and out of sight. The gantry was connected to a whole mess of other gantries, as well as cranes, platforms and other such industrial junk.

"Shall we proceed?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, why not?" Sandra replied. "I guess if we just look hard enough, we may be able to find someone to shout at… and then maybe a way down from here."

"Could be hard to find someone shoutable. It looks a bit busy right now."

The bay below them, as well as all the other ones they could see, was buzzing with activity. Deadborders, Darkhorns and Heldigunners were being prepared to deploy, or moving onto massive elevators that were in turn lifting them up into the ceiling, presumably transporting them up into the old city. Numerous technicians milled around, loading Zoids, loading weapons, checking Zoids and the like, while pilots scurried into their machines.

"See anyone you recongise?" Sandra asked.

"Maybe if we looked out for a Heldy with a Shot cannon." Rick replied. "That's a start."

"Uh, Rick, not to burst your bubble, but…" She indicated to an elevator going past them. There were three Heldigunners on the back of it, all of which had Shot Cannons. "Its all Dark Zoids here. We're going to find bog all."

"Fignuts." Rick swore.

"Come on. We may find something."

They slowly walked across the catwalk, looking down into the various bays. "What do you think is going on?" Rick asked.

"It's too early in the morning to be this busy." Sandra replied. "Judging form the sirens, it must be an attack."

"Out here? Before breakfast?"

"Well, I can't think of a better explanation." Sandra said.

"Great. An attack." Rick replied. "And now I'm hungry."

"Don't worry about it. We're deep, deep underground. Aside form getting a million tons of rock dropped on our heads, what's the worst that could happen?"

"You're so reassuring Sandra."

"I try." She said and smiled.

They walked in silence for a minute, passing several more bays before Rick spoke. "There's something unusual." He said, pointing towards a lift. Sandra followed his finger, then spotted the lift in question. Rather then the usual Dark Zoids, it was carrying a silvery-grey Blade liger, and a quartet of black and grey Greatsabers. The Bladey, she noticed, had a CP-15 pod on its back. She'd meant to get one for Spud for a while.

"That's something you don't see every day." She said.

"Notice that they're still black." Rick added, then laughed.

"Good call." She replied. "Now let's find someone important."

"Actually, I think we just did." Rick said. The next bay along had a Darkhorn, Deadborder and three Heldigunners being prepped. One of the Heldies, she noticed, had a CP-07 cannon on its back.

"So what?" She replied. "its just another buncha Dark Zoids."

"Yeah, but check out the splash of colour." He explained. "Over in the corner of the bay." A trio of blue Zoids stood out from the general greyness of everything else; a Command Wolf, a Gunsniper and a Shield Liger.

"Spud!" Sandra shouted excitedly. Rick glared at her. "Um, I mean, my Shield Liger. And, yeah. Your Command Wolf."

"Want to check them out?"

"Sounds like the proverbial plan."

They found an access ladder a bit further on that dropped down into the bay. After a zillion or so rung decent, they arrived on the bay floor, to be greeted by a set of angry glares. Sel was talking to another pair of pilots; a tanned, muscular-looking woman and a vaguely nondescript man, both of whom were looking a might annoyed at the intrusion.

"I'll handle this." Sel began. "I'll catch up with you two in the city." The other two saluted and walked off, while Sel walked over to the pair of them. "Can I just ask one question?"

"Shoot." Rick said. Sandra rolled her eye.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?"

"We're trying to find out what's going on." Sandra replied. "We were woken up by sirens and the sound of people running. Nobody wanted to tell us anything, so we got enterprising and decided to find out for ourselves."

"What's happening is that we're under attack!" Sel hissed. "And the pair of you are probably best off finding a nice quiet place to hide and try not to get into any trouble until it's all over." She looked around for a second. "Right now, I'm in it up to my neck. The last thing I need is you two making things worse for me."

"So who's attacking us?" Sandra asked.

"Some tools with an Ultrasaurus and some Kongs" Sel replied.

"And you have no idea who?"

"No." She admitted. "Not that it makes much difference, since my company's assigned to garrison duty rather then the actual attack. So we're not likely to see any action anyway."

"Right." Rick said. "So… you don't need us."

"No." Sel said, firmly.

"Okay, how about a pair of tactical advisers who have a lot of experience fighting a diverse array of opponents?" Sandra asked.

Sel looked at the pair of them. "The Zoid lift can be controlled from a hand-held remote stored in the control panel over there." She said, quietly. "Wait about five minutes after we've gone, and I'll send it back down for you." She glanced at the others. "I'll make sure the other squads aren't looking. And if you're caught, you did this entirely of your own choice."

"Thanks for that, Sel." Sandra said. "Oh yeah, one more thing."

"What?"

"You said 'tool'."

Sel stopped. "Did I?"

-----

The black and green Reddler John was casing broke away from him just as he squeezed the trigger. The trio of energy beams from Fuunsaki's three projector horns blazed through the air where it had been moments before. Cursing the enemy pilot, he set off after it. His opponent, however, had already fired his pod-mounted boosters, and was getting away from him.

A beep from the communicator momentarily distracted him. "Shepard here-" He began and then was cut off as a shot hit Fuun's hindquaters. "Just a second." He pulled away, leaving the attacking Reddler behind. "Yes?"

Pie's face appeared on the screen. "What's the situation there, John?"

"Captain Hugh's force is continuing the bombardment of the enemy fortress. We have no firm figures, but he believes that something is going to give within the next fifteen or so minutes. We've also completely occupied their air force."

"Excellent!" He replied, grinning. "And their army?"

"No sign beyond the Reddlers, sir." John reported. "But we suspect they're hiding behind the doors, probably looking for an opportunity to charge."

"Good, good." Pie said. "My force is in position now to begin our attack. John, I want you to join me in the invasion of the city. No sense in having my best officer waiting on captain Hugh's breakthrough."

"Yes, colonel." He replied. "I'll be with you momentarily."

"Good, good. I look forward to it."

He closed the signal and sent Fuun soaring upwards. Below he could see captain Hugh's Battlesaurus, the two Iron Kongs and their escort of Strike Zillas. They should be able to mount a breakthrough without him or, at the very least, hold off the enemy long enough for Pie to get through. The Evil Pegasus swooped over the mountain and down to the other side where Pie's own group was waiting.

The Thunder Trictops headed up the group. Claws, Sabers, Zoidzillas, Strike Zillas and Evil Scorpions trailed behind it. It was a brilliant plan, he thought to himself. He'd devised it himself, based on the material found within the Quentin Journal. One force attacks the front gates and draws out their army, while another takes advantage of an unknown weakness.

Fuunsaki landed next to the Thunder Trictops. Ahead of the pair of them was a pile of rocks barely visible amongst the rest of the cliff. Time, erosion, weather and the movement of other loose debris had resulting in them blending in very well with the rest of the landscape.

"Well, this is it, John." Pie said, smiling. "Let's go." The Thunder Trictops slowly marched forwards, its two horn-drills spinning. The tips reached the rock wall and dig in, sending chips of stone flying.

-----

The top doors to the Reddler launch bay opened, revealing a dull, grey sky above. Rose's Blade Liger crouched at the end of the ramp, the four Greatsabres waiting behind it. A tech's face popped up on a comms screen. "Uh, captain?" The tech asked. "You sure about this? I mean, uh, we've never done this before. I mean, with a land-based Zoid…"

"Yes, I am." She replied. "So stop worrying and just launch me."

"Y-yes, captain." The nervous technician replied.

She leaned back in the command seat, then flicked a couple of switches on the control panel. The Blade Liger's rear boosters deployed, but didn't activate. At least, she didn't want them to yet. "Launch!" She shouted into the communicator.

Below her, the Magnetic Catapult activated, using a series of powerful electromagnets to shoot the Zoid out of the launch bay like a round form a railgun. Leaping into the air over the end of the bay, she fired the Zoid's boosters, giving it extra momentum as it landed on the top of the mountain. Behind her, the first Great Zaber shot out from the bay, activating its flight system to give an additional boost.

The Liger reached to the edge of the mountain and leaped again, spreading its twin blades out as it went. The combination of speed, blades, boosters and the catapult enabled it to leap a considerable distance, sailing down to the ridges above the twilight valley. Behind her, the Great Zabers used their flight packs to cross the gap and land behind her.

"Nadia, status?" She shouted into the comms system.

"We're all down." Her pale skinned, dark haired second replied. "All systems functional."

"Good. Assume Triangle formation on me." She throttled back the Liger's engines so she was matching speed with the Tigers. Despite their limited flight capability, they were somewhat slower then she was, so maintaining the formation was important. She didn't want to get too far ahead of them.

Checking the sensors, she could see the enemy group ahead. They were looking down the valley, not at the ridges above it. Reasonable, she thought. They probably didn't know we had any high-speed Zoids. The Liger and Tigers were recent additions, acquired from a group who had been trying to hide out from, well, who cared who at the far end of the Dark continent. Rose had lead the force that had dealt with them, ensuring that they wouldn't need their Zoids any more. She'd claimed the Blade liger as her own. It far better suited her then a clumsy Darkhorn or Deadborder.

The sensors began to ID the various enemies. Iron Kongs, Gustavs, Strike Zillas… Heck, she could even see the white form of the Ultrasaurus… probably the Battlesaurus type then… hmm… The two Gustavs were parked behind the Kongs. She suspected that they were feeding the Kongs with a continuous supply of new missiles. Good plan, she thought. Only one drawback.

"Nadia, Rena, I want the pair of you to hit the Gustavs. I'll clear a path for you."

"Yes, captain" They replied in stereo.

Firing the Blade Liger's boosters again, she dashed in front of the Tigers to a considerable degree. Cecking the enemy's positions, she noticed the location of a pair of the Strikezillas. Perfect, she thought. And a great way to make an entrance.

The Liger leaped off the side off the ridge, firing its boosters and extending its blades as it went. It sailed past a pair of Strike Zillas, neatly decapitating them as it went. She landed, the two headless Zoids coming down behind her.

"Hello boys." She said. As one, the enemy turned to face her Liger. "Glad to see I have your attention." She broke into a run, just as the enemy began firing. Deploying the forward shield, she smiled with some degree of satisfaction as most of the rounds bounced off it. Breaking sharply to one side, she sprayed a trailing Strike Zilla with rounds from the CP-15 cannon. "That's right, just keep on following me."

Nadia and Rena's Zabers leaped over the ridge, firing their boosters as they went. As they sailed through the air, both deployed their back-mounted missile pods and fired. The missiles arced over, striking the ammo-laden cargo trailers of the two Gustavs. Both burst into spectacular explosions, one of the Iron Kongs staggered by the blast.

She charged towards the Battlesaurus, locking the missile pod onto its starboard cannon array. Before she could strike, however, the ground in front of her erupted. A pair of Evil Scorpions emerged, opening fire with their tail-mounted cannons. She hastily raised the shield and then dropped the blades out to her side as she went. One of the Scorpions ducked enough to let her past, while the other lost its tail to her blade.

"Clever bastards." She said to herself, then opened up the comms system. "Everyone, watch your step! They've buried Evil Scorps around the place." She fired on the damaged Scorpion, shaking it with her hits.

"Captain, how long do we have to hold them for?" Nadia asked, looking more then a bit worried. At these odds, who wouldn't be?

"As long as it takes." She replied.

-----

Unlike the other Zoid bays, this one was deserted. The few technicians on site had been moved off to deal with other Zoids, while the security troops were preparing for an invasion of the city. It was silent and empty save for the sole Zoid occupying it.

A supposedly secure vent that hypothetically shouldn't have gone anywhere rattled a few times. And then crashed open, flying a good distance to the floor. For a minute, everything was silent, then a figure emerged.

Vic Hagen looked up at the massive bay. Unlike the other Zoid bays she'd passed, this one was fully enclosed, with four complete walls that stretched al the way up to the cavern roof. She'd only gotten in here through a number of long-forgotten passageways leading from the maze of tunnels and sub-levels below the old city. Most people would have been lost in that mess, but she'd been… guided here, almost as if by a voice in the back of her head telling her where to go. Now she knew what it was.

The bay was occupied by the massive form of a blood-red Deathsaurer. Its head was bowed, and its red eyes were dim as if it was deactivated, or asleep. Numerous cables were connected to the back of it, trailing off into the ceiling. However, it looked to be complete and, more to the point, ready to be used.

She looked up to look it in its dull eyes. "I'm here." She muttered to herself, or maybe to the Zoid.


	26. Burninate

Twilight Valley

Dark Continent

0700 Hours

Rena's Greatsaber leaped over the Iron Kong, firing its cannons as it went. The shots struck the Kong's chest and shoulder armour, but didn't seem to have any effect on it. Before she could land, however the Kong retaliated by simply punching it. The Zoid's massive armoured fist slammed into the Sabre's side, knocking it out of the air and sending it smashing to the ground. The Tiger lay there, apparently not moving.

"Captain!" Nadia shouted over the Comm. "Rena's Zoid is-"

"I can see it!" She shouted back as she dodged fire from a Strike Zilla. Things weren't going well for them. Two, no, three now of the Great Zabers were down and her own Blade Liger was damaged. One of the blades had been taken out, and the CP-15 pod had been shot off. Nadia was doing better, but Rose knew she couldn't last too much longer.

Still, they'd hurt the enemy. One of the Iron Kongs was disabled, and the other damaged. The Battlesaurus had taken a number of hits and lost its starboard cannons. And, well, a number of Strike Zillas and Evil Scorpions were down or damaged.

She felt tired and sore, but strangely elated. It was exciting, this battle. It was a real challenge to her. Not some poxy mock battle against aggressors who were limited to just firing dummy rounds, but the real thing. It was what she had been waiting for.

If anyone had looked, they'd have noticed flacks of orange in her otherwise green eyes.

She fired at the Strike Zilla with the Zoid's chin-mounted impact cannon. The hits rocked the Zoid, but didn't disable it. She swore under her breath and prepared to charge, only to be thrown aside by an explosion in front of the Zoid. The Blade Liger was knocked back, and crashed to the ground, landing on its side.

She shook her head, feeling, well, something from the Zoid. Anger. Hurt. Fight. A shadow fell across the canopy. Looking up, she could see the Massive Battlesaurus loomed over her, blocking out the rising sun.

"Surrender now!" A voice called over a PA. "We will spare your lives. You are out-numbered and surrounded."

The Blade Liger woozily regained its footing. Despite the situation, she wanted to fight. She had to fight. She had to hold them off for as long as possible. No, not hold them off, she continued. Defeat them. Defeat all her enemies.

"I repeat, surrender now and you will not be harmed!"

The Blade Liger backed up, the leaped at the Battlesaurus, digging its fangs into the massive Zoid's heavily armoured neck near the base. The Zoid bellowed, and thrashed the neck around, desperate to throw her off. Several Strike Zillas opened fire on the pair of them, trying to dislodge her. A shot hit, and sent her crashing to the ground.

She looked up. The Battlesaurus was damaged, but not out of action by any stretch of the imagination. It loomed over her again, the pilot clearly not willing to give her any more opportunities.

"Captain?" She could hear Nadia's voice over the comm. "Captain? Can you hear me?"

The Battlesaurus loomed closer. Before it could strike, however, it was rocked by a number of hits to its body and the ground around it, momentarily staggering the huge machine. Around it, the remaining Strike Zillas, Evil Scorpions and Iron Kong backed away.

Rose bought the Liger to its feet, shaking her head. Looking over her shoulder, she could see where the attacks were coming from. The front gates to the city were open, with an army of Dark Zoids pouring out of them. Darkhorns, Deadborders and Heldigunenrs were marching through the valley, firing as they went. A murderous hail of flack and autocannon fire met any airborne Zoid that tried to attack them.

She turned back to face the Battlesaurus. "Who should surrender?"

-----

The Thunder Trictops' massive body shuddered with the vibrations feeding back through the drills, and then stopped. Slowly, the Zoid stepped forward, its twin drills spinning in the air then slowing to a halt. In the command centre, Pie sat back in his command seat. "Captain Nabakov, what's our status?"

Anton Nabakov, the Zoid's pilot, checked a couple of screens in the heavily armoured cockpit. "We're through the mountain and in the city. All systems reading as normal, colonel."

"Excellent work. Give me the feeds from outside." The monitors in the command centre lit up displaying various views of the Zoid's surroundings. They were in a city, as he'd expected. Many of the buildings around them appeared to be in ruins or badly damaged, however. "It looks like they haven't done much renovating since Kandrak was last here." He said, and smiled. "Time to go to work."

The Zoid slowly stomped forwards, clearing the end of the tunnel for the other Zoids to come through into the city. Major Shepherd's Evil Pegasus walked up next to its cockpit. "Your orders, Colonel?" He asked.

"Spread out. We need to find and take the entrances to their central core." Pie said. "By now, the bulk of their army should be tied up with Captain Hugh's force."

"And if we encounter any enemy Zoids?" John asked.

"Destroy them all." Pie replied. "We'll show them. We'll show them all." The Thunder Trictops stomped off into the city, several Strikezillas following behind it.

John turned to the two Claws behind him. "You two, with me." He commanded. A city, especially an enclosed one like this, was less then an optimal environment for a flying Zoid. He was damned if he wasn't going to have a guard on this operation. Someone had to give the orders that would be running this operation, but he was pretty sure that pie wouldn't be the one to do it.

He activated Fuunsaki's comms system. "Captain Hugh, this is Shepherd."

Hugh's face came over the static-laden screen. There were sparks in his cockpit, and a number of displays were shorted out or non-functional. "Major? Can this wait we're-"

John cut him off. "Hugh, we're inside the city. Hat is your status?"

"We're not going to last much longer!" He shouted back. "We're out numbered and-"

"Is their army out there?"

"Yes but-"

"Good. Seal the front entrance to the city. Do whatever you need, as long as you do it." He glared into the monitor.

"Y-yes Major." He stammered.

John closed the feed. They'd achieved their first objective, infiltrating the city. From here, Hugh's force was irrelevant.

-----

The Battlesaurus was clearly done for. Its starboard cannon array and most of the secondary weapons were out of action, and it was belching black smoke from innumerable holes in its armour. Its attackers were bringing it down not through superior firepower of a single unit, but by sheer numbers of Zoids all firing on it at once.

Shuddering under another volley, it stumbled around to face the city again. The massive cannons on its side fired one last time, the shots arcing up and over, slamming into the already-shattered rock layer overhanging the opened front doors to the city. The rock cracked and then collapsed, blocking the open doorway with rubble.

The Battlesaurus' gunners had little time to celebrate their victory. A volley of fire from a pair of Deadborders shattered the remaining cannons before they could be used again, while other Zoids continued to pour fire into the dying machine. Something inside its body exploded, blasting a huge hole outwards in its side. The massive machine bellowed once in pain, and then collapsed on its side.

-----

The city was rocked by the explosion. The overhead lights, many already faded or simply broken, flickered on and off, while chunks of cavern ceiling crashed to the ground.

"What the frelling hell was that?" Sandra shouted. A chunk of debris had come down next to her Liger, nearly crushing it.

"Give me a second." Sel replied. She opened a link to the gate control centre, only to be greeted by a scene of utter chaos. The room was clouded with smoke, with several consoles apparently on fire, and chunks of debris lying on the floor. Major Dremmler, his forehead cut open, was shouting orders into the smoke. "Major!" She shouted. "What's happening in there?"

"We've been hit, captain!" He shouted back. "We've got rubble blocking the main gate! Nobody can make it in or out!"

"And your status?"

"We've…" Somebody shouting in the background cut him off. "We're out of action here, captain. We're trying to get it back under control, but it'll be some time before we can open the gates again."

She closed the transmission. It didn't make any sense. The enemy needed to use the gates to enter. Why would they then seal them off? They had trapped the bulk of the army outside, but…

A vid-window opened on the Darkhorn's comms panel, showing Lieutenant Carlisle's face. "Captain!" He shouted. "We're under attack!"

"What?" She shouted back. "Where are you?"

"Northwest sector in the industrial ruins." He replied. Sel bought up a map of the old city on her screen. The city was essentially a donut shape, wrapped around the massive power core that was the heart of both cities. "They came out of nowhere!"

"What types?" She asked.

"Not sure. We've seen Arosaurers and Guysacks so far." He said. "But we think there could be more."

"Right." Sel said. "Hold them as long as possible. We're on our way." She closed the window, and then opened a link to her squad and Lieutenant Kay's. "Lieutenant Carlyle's squad is under attack in the Northwest Industrial Ruins. Kay, what's your status?"

"We're in the Southwest Sector, in the park." She replied. "Everything's clear here."

"Right." Sel said. "Head for the industrial wastes to link-up with Carlyle's squad. We'll try to be there as soon as possible."

"Yes captain." She closed the link.

Sandra butted in on the signal. "Rick and I have faster Zoids then you do. We can run ahead and try to give you the low-down on the situation."

"Thanks." She said, then hit a few buttons on the control panel. "I've sent you two a map of the city. Should be of some use."

"Thanks for that." Sandra said, then smiled. "Looks like you didn't put your warpaint on for nothing."

"What?" Sel said, then touched the side of her face. She'd done the facepaint while waiting on Kay and Carlyle, and had forgotten all about it.

-----

Vic stood on the gantry next to the Deathsaurer's cockpit. She'd never seen one up close before, heck she'd never seen one for real before. However, for some reason, she knew exactly what to do. She pressed on a small, nearly invisible panel near the back of the head, which opened up, revealing a numeric keypad. Without thinking, she keyed in a sequence and stood back.

The canopy swung open, revealing the cockpit inside it. She carefully stepped over the sides and into the cockpit. Easing herself into the command seat, she felt behind her head for a small panel. Flipping it open, she located a cable inside it. Without looking, she gently connected it to a port on the back of her neck.

Contact.

Her mind met the Deathsaurer's and connected. Her senses rolled and expanded to take in her newly, massive body. Looking down, she could see the floor far below her. Her vision shifted through the visible to the infra-red, taking in all around it, while she discovered new ones, radar, magnetic, thermal and many others.

She flicked several switches on the control panel. The various tubes attached to the Deathsaurer's body surged, pumping power into it at their full rate, rather then the trickle they'd been feeding it beforehand. All across its cockpit, various panels and lights activated with status monitors indicating all systems ready. The cockpit swung shut, the monitors activating to give her a full three-sixty degree view around the Zoid.

The Deathsaurer's red eyes glowed as it came back to life.

"Now." She said, her voice strangely empty and hollow. "I hunger."

-----

Rick threw his Command Wolf around a corner, activating the boosters as he went. Behind him, the Sabre skidded around the corner, firing wildly with its back-mounted cannon turret. The shots went wide, tearing up a chunk of abandoned real estate. Rick Swung the AC unit around, firing randomly at the pursuing Zoid, more to discourage it then actually kill it. By some fluke, one of the shots hit, tearing up the armour on its side.

He and Sandra had literally blundered into an enemy force while scouting ahead for Sel. One minute there was ruined buildings and potholed pavement (Which kind of reminded him of Bed Springs, only not as run down.), the next it was Zoids shooting at the pair of them. They'd split up. Hoping to draw off as many enemy Zoids as possible.

It had worked to a degree. Rick had ended up being chased by a Sabre, which unfortunately, happened to be the superior of his Command Wolf in virtually every aspect. It didn't help, at least not in his mind, that it was the ugliest Sabre Tiger derivative he'd ever seen, with its silver body and red underside. He'd resisted the urge to tell the pilot that, however.

He threw the Wolf around another corner, and kept running. He was looking for a break, for something that he could use against his pursuer. Maybe it'd fall in a hole or something. Who knew.

A beep from his comms panel got his attention. Bekka's face appeared on his screen. She was wearing one of the paint patterns he'd designed for her, he noticed. Cool. "Rick!" She began. "What's happening there?"

"What's happening is I'm being chased by the most fugly damned cat I've ever seen." He shouted back. "Apart from that, I'm fine."

"Cool." Bekka said. "Take a left at the next crossroads you come to, and then head straight down the street. Hopefully he'll follow you."

"Hopefully?"

"Trust me." She winked and closed the screen.

"Eh, why not?" He asked. He took the left; heading into what he figured had once been a commercial district. High-rise office buildings, now abandoned, lined the street, their empty, battle-scarred sides reaching almost to the top of the cavern. Behind him the sound of gunfire indicated that the Sabre was in pursuit.

A burst of cannon fire from the ground floor of one of the buildings struck the Sabre in its damaged side. The Zoid crashed to the street and skidded along, its right severely damaged. Before it could stand, a burst of weapons fire from a different building hit its now exposed underside, gouging huge holes out of the structure. The Zoid shook and then was still, black smoke billowing form the hole in its belly.

"What the?" Rick asked himself, then realised what the answer was. A pair of black and green Heldigunners crawled out from the two buildings.

"What did you think?" Bekka's face appeared on his screen. She was smiling for the first time since they'd been here. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Nice work you two." Rick said. "Pretty sneaky too."

"We were taking advantage of the terrain." Bob said, butting in on the pair of them. He then glanced around. "Um, tell you two what. I'll, uh, see how Alex is going." His Heldigunner crawled off down the street.

"Thanks Bob." Bekka said.

"So, uh, how are you?" Rick asked her.

"Not too bad." He said. "We spent all last night being shot at. You?"

"Still house arrest, I'm afraid." She admitted. "They let us out for today. I guess it was my turn to be shot at." She looked at him. "I'm surprised they let you have your Zoid."

"We're not exactly here." Rick replied, nervously. "We're more of- DUCK!"

Bekka's Heldigunner squatted low to the ground as Rick opened fire with the AC unit. Behind her, an Evil Scorpion took both hits in the face and crashed to the ground, its front end a smoking mess.

"Whoah." Bekka muttered. "Thanks for that."

"It's all good." Rick replied. "Say, um, when this is over…"

She smiled. "Well, we're both in a lot of trouble already, so why not a little more?"

-----

Sandra allowed herself a breather as the Liger slunk behind a ruined building. She'd managed to loose her pursuers, and had gotten off the info to Sel about the enemy forces. She also realised that they were in a shed-load of trouble.

All up, Sel had a total of seventeen Zoids under her command. She hadn't been able to find any of Carlyle's units, so she had no idea of how many of them were out of action. The enemy had, well, she'd seen more then seventeen so far. She'd narrowly escaped fire from a pair of Zoidzillas by running away from them. Being three times faster then they were was a definite advantage. Aside from them, she'd seen Evil Scorpions, Sabres (one of which had decided to chew on Rick, Strike Zillas and an Evil Pegasus.

So, in other words, a whole world of bad news.

Before she could report to Sel, the wall next to her Shield Liger exploded, showering it in debris. Standing behind it was a black, gold and neon-green Shield Liger, its shot cannon smoking.

"Damn, that's one hideous looking Zoid you've got there." She said out loud.

"I find that the Zoid's not as important as the pilot inside it." The female pilot responded. Sandra realised she must have had the PA on. Before Sandra could respond, she charged.

"Tool!" She shouted. She throttled the Shield Kitty to maximum, leaping out of the way of the oncoming Zoid. It landed and snarled at her retreating Zoid, so she returned the favour with the tail-mounted guns. The shots hit the Claw's side, damaging it but not doing anything serious. "Damn it, I need to get you some new guns." She muttered to herself. The Liger growled in an angry way.

The Claw took off after her, firing its back mounted cannons as well as the Impact cannon. One or two of the shots hit hr Zoid's weak rear armour, damaging the plating over the legs. Cursing inwardly for exposing its rear, she slewed the Liger around, activating its shields. The Claw's shots bounced off the shield as it charged.

Sandra knew better then to bother firing back. She was experienced enough with the Shield Liger to know that the enemy pilot would probably have her shield up before she could. Instead, she charged forwards, keeping the shield up. The other Liger charged as well, its shield also up.

The two of them collided, their shields momentarily flexing and cracking with energy. Then they bounced back, both landing on their feet, their Zoids roaring at each other.

"Okay, I concede. It's not ugly. It's alternative." She said, and smiled. "Can I go now?" The other Liger charged at her. "I guess not."

-----

Matt's Deadborder lurked behind the derelict factory, its pilot patiently waiting for their target to approach. The Deadborder's various sensors were on, albeit running in a passive mode to make the Zoid harder to detect. Normally it would also make detecting the target difficult, but this target wasn't too hard to spot anyway.

The sound of heavy footfalls nearby alerted him. Peering the Zoid's head around the factory, he could see a massive silver shape, sticking out amongst the mess of destroyed buildings and rusted pipes that made up the area around them. Through the weird green tint that the Deadborder's sensors gave everything, it became an eerie, almost nightmarish sight. It was a Zoidzilla, one of the most powerful Zoids in the Shelflands. Similar in configuration to the Deadborder, It stood almost twice as tall. He felt relived to a degree that it wasn't equipped with the Supercannons that many others of its type carried.

The mess of metal in the wrecked factories was apparently serving well to protect him from detection, as the Zoidzilla went straight past him. He waited a little longer, then stepped out and opened fire. The two Grav-Cannons and their underslung 150mm cannons fired, their rounds tearing into the massive Zoids back armour and blowing one of the fins on the back off.

The Zoidzilla's tail gunner opened fire, the light cannons mounted there chipping armour from the Deadborder's flanks and legs before he could move out of its way. The Zoidzilla turned to face him, it's massive from looming over the Deadborder, poised to strike.

A burst of autocannon fire rippled across the huge Zoid's flank, ripping apart the armour over the right hip and knee. A beam cannon followed up the strike, ripping through the already damaged armour and staggering it. Matt took advantage of the opportunity to attack again, the shots tearing away more armour over the Zoidzilla's chest and hip.

The huge Zoid staggered, but managed to stay upright. Before it could attack, however, Sel's Darkhorn appeared, charging straight at it. The Darkhorn crashed straight into its damaged leg, twisting the lower leg at an awkward looking angle. The Darkhorn skidded around to face the Zoidzilla, and opened fire with its back-mounted cannons. The Zoidzilla staggered, then collapsed as its damaged leg gave way and snapped off at the knee. The downed pilot decided to do the smart thing, and didn't try fighting back once he was down.

Sel's face appeared on his comms screen. She was breathing heavily, but appeared to be mostly fine. "How are we going, Matt?" She asked.

"Some damage, but mostly armour." He replied. "You?"

"Tired but good." She replied. "We need to find that other Zoidzilla."

"Give it a minute, captain." Matt said. "We should hold before we go out again."

"Why?"

He indicated to his eyes. "You've got a few flecks of green in your eyes, captain."

Sel blinked, then screwed up her eyes and opened them again. "I do? damn." She looked around. "Fine. We wait a few minutes, then we move out again."

-----

Sandra's Shield Liger and the enemy Claw faced each other down across the abandoned park. Each of them had taken several hits from the other, and Sandra couldn't confidently say that she was doing better then her opponent. Whoever it was in the other Liger, she thought, the were good. They'd matched her almost move-for-move, neither one being able to gain an advantage over the other.

She checked her Kitty's systems. All of them appeared to be functioning normally, save for the shield. It was still operable, but its power reserve was low. Ideally, it would need more time to recharge, but she didn't have that opportunity right now. She figured it was good for one pass, then she couldn't rely on it to stay up after that. Her only hope was that the opponent was feeling the same.

The enemy Claw charged at her again, firing the impact cannon. Fine, she thought. The decision was made for her. She hastily put the shield up, blocking the shots, then charged herself. The Claw leaped at her, only to suddenly crash forward on the ground, landing in a rather ungraceful heap. Not one to ignore an opportunity like this, Sandra leaped on the damaged Claw, smashing the Shield Liger's claws into the back of its neck. The damaged Zoid roared, then whimpered quiet.

Sandra looked at the enemy Zoid, and saw what had happened. It's back section had a pair of huge gaping holes in it, like it had between shot open. Looking up, she saw Rick's Command Wolf standing at the end of the street, its AC unit smoking.

"Sorry to interrupt your little duel." Rick began. "I figured you could use the help."

"Yeah." Sandra replied. as the Liger leaped off its downed foe. "I don't mind one on one duels, just so long as I have superior numbers on my side." A Heldigunner crawled out from behind a building. Sandra had a pretty good idea whose it was. "So how are you two doing?"

"Not bad." Bekka said, cutting in. She looked a lot happier then when Sandra had last seen her. which was a start. "We've gotten two Strike Zillas, an Evil Scorpion and a Sabre."

"And I suppose we can go shares on the Claw." Rick finished.

"Well that's fair." Sandra said. "So far I've only seen this guy. We got all wrapped up with chasing each other around that I've lost track of everything else. How are we doing anyway?"

"Hard to say." Bekka replied. "We still haven't been able to find Lieutenant Carlyle's squad, so we're going to have to assume the worst. I know that Sel and Matt are trying to take out all their big units, but that's about it."

"Great." Sandra muttered. "From what I saw, we need to keep up a kill ratio of at least three to one to stay even."

"Wonderful." Rick muttered.

"It gets better. That's assuming what you and I saw was their whole force and not just a part of it." Sandra continued.

"So... We've got to kill lots of them?" Bekka asked.

"I think-" Sandra began, the stopped. "Shh... can you guys hear something?"

There was silence for a moment, then she heard it again. A heavy, thumping sound with a distressing regularity. And another noise... it sounded like someone drilling through something. Was it in the distance? Or nearby and muffled.

"Power drill?" Rick asked. "Construction work?"

"Not up here." Bekka replied. "Nobody's done any work up here in decades. Certainly not in my lifetime."

"It's not a Zoid, is it?" Rick asked.

"Yes, but drills?" Sandra asked. "Unless... oh tool. Tool, tool, tool."

The building next to them exploded outwards in a cloud of smoke, dust and debris. A massive pair of drills emerged first, spinning in the air. Behind them came an enormous, heavily armoured, four-legged Zoid. Despite its unusual colour scheme, far from the norm for its type, she recognised it instantly.

It was a Madthunder, one of the most powerful Zoids in all the Shelflands. A mobile fortress, designed to smash its way though anything in its path. Nothing they had could pierce its dense armour, let alone damage it.

"What should we do?" Rick asked.

"Run. Run very fast. And try to find Sel." Sandra replied.

"Right." Rick said. "Can her Darkhorn or Matt's Deadborder stop it?"

"No, but she might think of something clever. For now, I'm stuffed."

-----

Colonel Pie sat in the command centre of the Thunder Trictops, watching the battlefield around him. He saw the enemy Zoids fleeing from him. Anton, his faithful driver, was firing a few shots at them as they fled. He didn't mind that they got away. It didn't matter now, given that they were so close to their objectives. The presence of the Shield Liger and Command Wolf was unexpected. Still, they probably weren't important. There wasn't anything they could do to him.

The Thunder Trictops had been a rare and lucky find. He'd paid a fortune for it, both out of his own pocket and the unit's funds. But it was worth it! A far, far more powerful Zoid then even captain Hugh's Battesaurus (Which had once been his own command machine) designed to destroy anything in its path. He'd known they were out there when he'd acquired it. He'd known that a powerful Zoid would be needed to defeat them. A Madthunder? That was perfect for what he needed. But a legendary, unique Madthunder? That was even better. He could use it to take the battle to them, to drive the battle to their heart, to crush them underfoot.

He activated his comms panel. "John, what's your status?"

"I estimate we've penetrated more then half way towards the core of their city. So far resistance has been scattered and largely ineffective." John replied. "We have, however, lost Captain Campbell's Zoidzilla, Leutenant Pulver's Claw-"

"Good, good." Pie replied. "John, I'm going straight to the heart of the enemy. Your job is to keep them busy as long as possible. Don't rest until every last one of them is destroyed."

"Yes sir." He replied.

"Excellent. This is a great day, John. A great day."

"Yes sir." John replied.

He closed the connection, and sat back in his seat. He had waited so long for this, and now it was within his grasp. He'd show them, he thought. He'd show them all.

-----

"And that's when the Madthunder attacked us." Sandra explained as she ran.

"A Madthunder?" Sel replied. Sandra had been filling her in on the situation as she went. "Here?"

"That's what I saw." Sandra said. "Rick and Bekka saw it too, so I doubt I'm the only one going completely loopy."

"Well, actually, I thought it was a rather unusual colour for a Madthunder." Rick said, butting in on their conversation. "The upper hull was too light, and the lower too dark."

"You don't think it could have been Darthed, do you?" Sandra asked. The very thought of a Darthed Madthunder filled her with dread. Most Darths seemed to believe that their one goal in life was to put more weapons on a Zoid then it could conceivably carry. The thought of a Madthunder with more guns filled her with dread.

"I don't think so." Rick replied. "It didn't look modified to me. At least, not form where I was."

"So..." She trailed off. The colour scheme looked familiar to her for some reason. She was trying to place it. Then she realised it. "It's a Thunder Trictops!" She shouted.

"A what?" Sel asked.

"Thunder Trictops." She explained. "A legendary developed version of the Madthunder. It was supposedly developed at the same time as the Evil Pegasus and the Battlesaurus, but never reached production. Of course, most people dismiss it as just being a myth, like Lizar."

"Clearly not." Sel said. "Something's smashing its way towards my home, and it sounds real enough for me."

"If its real, does that mean that the Trinity-" Rick began, but Sandra cut him off.

"No." She said.

"But-"

"NO!" Sandra shouted at him.

"Well, okay then."

"Right." Sel said. "Well, we're at grid ref AD5 now. We'll meet you there and try to think of, well, something."

-----

Sel had seen some bleak parts of the city, but this one had to be the worst of them. A mess of derelict industrial buildings mid-way to the core, it had suffered badly during the fighting fifty years ago. Decades of neglect and decay hadn't done it any favours since then, with the buildings slowly decaying into unrecognisable lumps of concrete and steel. Many of the lights over this particular area were no longer functional, making it duller then other areas of the city. The eerie green glow from Matt's Deadborder didn't help things any, giving the whole place a strange, haunted look. Her Darkhorn and the Deadboder waited in an overgrown, rubbish-strewn park that had provided a little change of colour in the middle of the otherwise bleak grey landscape.

A pair of Heldigunners, one with a large cannon mounted on its back, slithered towards the pair of them. She opened a link to them, and was relived to see that it was Alex and Bob's Zoids. That meant they were still alive, she thought. "Status?"

"We're both alive and well." Alex said. "No problems here, and I think we managed to bag a few of them en route."

"What's your orders, captain?" Bob asked.

"We're waiting for the moment for the others to arrive." She replied. "Then we're going to figure out a way to stop the enemy attack."

"Is it true that they've got a Madthunder?" Bob asked. "I heard some shouting over the tac channels about it."

"I'm afraid so." Sel replied. "We're trying to think of a way to deal with it."

"That's officer talk for 'we're stuffed'" Alex added.

Sandra's Liger bounded into sight, Rick's Command Wolf following close behind it. Half a minute later, they were joined by Bekka's Heldigunner. "Sorry to keep you guys." Sandra said. "We had to give MadThunderpants there the run-around first." She smiled over the com. "So what's the plan?"

"Right. I'm waiting on Kay's unit, then we can get to work." Sandra said.

Three minutes later, they were joined by Kay's squad. It was the same composition as Sel's; Darkhorn, Deadboder and three Heldiguners, one with the CP-07 Shot cannon. The Deadborder was looking somewhat shot up; the armour on its right side was badly damaged, and several of the tubes on its side appeared to be cut.

"Sorry to keep you." She began. Jenny Kay was a tall, muscular woman, nearly as tall as Sel was but more heavily built. She had tanned skin, brown eyes and hair. "We ran into a couple of Strike Zillas, Evil Scorpions and a Claw getting here." Her Darkhorn glared at the Shield Liger. "What are they doing here?"

"They are here as tactical advisors." Sel said. "Is Kusanagi's Deadborder functional?"

"The armour's damaged but its systems are functional." She replied. "We can manage."

"Good. We're going to need everything we can get." Sel explained. "Sandra?"

"Thanks." Sandra said. "Okay, people, here's what we've got. There's a MadThunder, specifically the legendary Thunder Trictops coming to give us a good, hard, asteroid smashing. Now nothing we have here is capable of stopping it. End of story. The best we can do is slow it down."

"How about digging under it like you did with those Zeekdobers?" Rick asked.

"No good." Bob explained. "Hardpacked concrete over bedrock. It's too much for a Heldigunner to go through."

"Poop bum fart." Rick swore without much conviction. "Any other ideas?"

"Hitting it with a Deathsaurer?" Sandra casually said. Sel's Darkhorn glared at her. "What? What?"

"It's not an option." Sel stated, firmly.

"Well, duh." Sandra said. I suspect you don't even have one around here." She was quiet for a minute, then muttered. "Stupid tooly Deathsaurers. Hip deep in 'em everywhere else but never one when you need one."

"We can't ram it." Sel continued, ignoring here for the moment. "It's got too much mass over us. A Madthunder weighs, what, four times as much as a Darkhorn?" Sandra nodded. "So even Jenny and I together aren't going to do much."

"And it'll shrug off most of our weapons fire." Matt added.

"Sounds like what happened with that Deathstinger." Rick said. "Remember that?"

"Wish I didn't." Sandra replied.

"You fought a Deathstinger?" Jenny asked, clearly surprised at the fact.

"Yep. Won too." Rick said.

"How?"

Rick and Sandra looked at each other. "I guess we were more nuts then he was." Rick admitted. "We just shot at it and tried to figure out a plan as we went. In the end we tried something stupid and it mostly worked." There was a dead silence. "What?"

"I think we may have found our plan, captain." Matt said.

"For want of a better idea." She replied. "Maybe we can hold it off long enough for the rest of the army to find a way back in here, or for someone to organise a better defence inside. Or we find a previously unknown weakness; a flaw in its armour, a weak spot, anything." Her Zoid looked around the assembled group. "I know it's risky, and I know it may not necessarily work, but its our best, no our only shot at stopping that monster. I for one don't want to see it run over all our homes, and I'm sure you all feel the same way."

"Agreed." Jenny said. "We can but try."

"Sandra, Rick." She turned to the pair of them. "You've done a lot so far, and I appreciate that. However, I cannot ask you two to risk your lives any further for us."

"Forget it." Sandra said. "We've come this far, we might as well go the whole hog."

"Besides, we're the experts in stupid stuff." Rick added. "You need stupid consultants and we're you're people."

"Thanks." Sel said.

"Hey, it's not a prob." Sandra replied. "Besides, if we do well on this, save everyone and life though it the authorities might be willing to overlook everything else we've done and seen so far and not have us executed on the spot."

-----

Private Nicholls had made it a point in his life never to volunteer for anything. He liked to remain at the fringes of his squad, staying as far away from everyone else. He thought of himself as being the "fourth guy on the left." The fourth guy never got picked for anything. He never got the bad duties. He never got asked to bravely make the ultimate sacrifice for his country. That was always the job of the guy next to him, or maybe the one up from that. But never him. And that was why being the fourth guy on the left was good.

His squadmates, Privates Goodbar and Norman were of the same frame of mind. Whenever possible, they tried to stand as far to the left as possible. If it was possible for the whole squad to be volunteered for something, they always moved as far as possible to the left so some other squad got picked instead. It may seem cowardly to some, but they saw it as a survival mechanism.

Unfortunately, their current lieutenant was somewhat, well, enthusiastic. Lieutenant Riley tended to volunteer them for everything, which was definitely a bad thing. It would have been okay during normal peacetime conditions. Worst that could happen is that they ended up playing the "Bad Guys" in a wargame. But now they were a million miles from anywhere in the middle of the Dark Continent inside a city that shouldn't be there with hostile forces all around. Being volunteered was definitely a bad thing in a situation like this.

He'd gone and volunteered the four of them to scout ahead of the main force of Colonel Pie's unit. Their task was to locate the lifts or bays or access ports or whatever it was that would lead them to the centre of the city. It sounded potentially dangerous so they'd been against it. Naturally, Reilly had volunteered them for it.

They had, however, managed to locate something that looked like an access lift. It was a massive door in the floor, surrounded with yellow and black warning stripes. Reilly had announced that this "had to be" what they were looking for, and declared that their mission was a success. He'd reported it back to Major Shepherd, who had ordered them to stay right there and guard it.

Abruptly, without warning, sirens and flashing red lights had gone off around the lift. The massive doors covering the lift had opened. Everybody had taken a step backwards rather then look down there. He knew he didn't want to know what it was, and was pretty convinced that the other members of his squad felt the same.

After a minute, something emerged from the bay. It was a huge shape, towering more then twice as tall as their Strike Zillas. Nichols instantly recognised its form as that of a Deathsaurer, and instantly wished that he was somewhere else, preferably another continent. It wasn't like any other Deathsaurer he'd seen, however. Where most of them were black, this one was a deep, blood-red colour.

The lift stopped and the monstrous Zoid took a single step off. The squad's Strike Zillas stepped back apprehensively. They had no idea where this Zoid had come from, who was piloting it and who's side it was on. Their briefing had told them to expect Darkhorns, Deadborders and Reddlers, and certainly not evil looking dark red Deathsaurers. It stopped in front of them, and roared.

"Shoot it!" Reily shouted nervously. "You've got Strike Zillas! They're powerful enough to take on a Deathsaurer!" His Strike Zilla opened fire with its back-mounted guns while backing off cautiously. The rest of the squad backed away from him cautiously. They could see what was about to happen, and he didn't want to be there.

The Deathsaurer's head reared backwards, then lunged forwards, firing its mouth-mounted Charged Particle Cannon. The beam simply vaporised Riley's Strike Zilla, leaving no trace of it ever existing.

"Right." Nicholls said, looking at the other two's Zoids. "Now, we run."

-----

"Colonel, we have a problem." John reported. Up until a minute ago, things had been going well. Casualties had been within expected levels (Albeit on the upper end) and they were on the verge of breaking through to the core section of the city. Then the Deathsaurer had appeared and the whole plan was crumbling. John hadn't planned on a Deathsaurer. The information he had indicated that they didn't have any Deathsaurers. And certainly if they had, he wouldn't have expected it to be kept in reserve until the last second. He would have used it to deal with the Battlesaurus and its escorts as soon as possible.

"What is it?" Pie asked. Obviously his Thunder Trictops wasn't anywhere near the problem.

"The enemy have deployed a Deathsaurer, sir." He reported. "It's advancing towards the main body of our force."

"Of course!" Pie said, excitedly. "That's what they've been hiding in here all along! That's their secret!"

"Yes sir." John replied. "So what should we do about the Deathsaurer?"

"Destroy it, of course!" Pie replied. "We can't allow any of them to get in our way!"

"Yes sir." John said, and closed the link. Clearly pie wasn't interested in outside concerns, only his mission. Damn it. This operation was probably a write-off already.

On the other hand, the Deathsaurer had weaknesses that he could take advantage of. It was slow and clumsy. It needed time to recharge its charged particle cannon. And its intake fan was very, very vulnerable to an attack from behind. Perfect. It was challenges like this that he lived for.

He opened a general link to the surviving troops. "Lieutenant Stakis, your Zoidzilla is to attack the Deathsaurer from head-on. Van Eyck, Ragnarsson, I want you two to attack it from behind. All surviving Strike Zilla and Evil Scorpion units are to support them."

There was a chorus of nervous "Yes sirs" from the troops.

He turned Fuunsaki away from the rest of the force. He knew that this whole attack was probably doomed. They might be able to take it down, he thought. In fact, there was a fair chance if it was alone and unsupported. Of course, there would be terrible casualties amongst their own troops. He had no intention of being one of them.

-----

Sandra's Shield Liger and Rick's Command Wolf sped along an overhead roadway, the others trailing behind them. The two of them had volunteered to be the "advance party" of the attack force. Their job was to locate the Thunder Trictops, start a fight and run like hell. Finding the overhead road was a bonus; it was largely intact and allowed them to get to their objective faster then it would at street level. The road was heavily reinforced, and had clearly been designed to be used for Zoid access. Between the pair of them they were still yet to form a plan. Sandra had figured that they'd think of something when they got there.

"Hey, check that out." Rick said, halting his Zoid.

"What?" Sandra asked, also stopping.

"Over there... towards the centre of the city. Looks like someone's having some problems." As he spoke, there was an explosion that demolished a building. She zoomed the display in on the source of the explosion. Looming form behind the ruined building was the massive form of a blood-red Deathsaurer. Several other Zoids were firing on it to not much effect.

"A Deathsaurer?" Sandra asked.

"Don't those things always turn up in the weirdest places?" Rick replied.

"What's happening over there?" Sel asked. Her Darkhorn was barrelling down the roadway towards the pair of them.

"Uh, Sel?" Sandra began. "You said that using a Deathsaurer wasn't an option."

"Yes, and?"

"So what in the name of all tooly hell is that thing?"

-----

The silver and black Zoidzilla lumbered out from around a corner, stepping over the smoking wrecks of the other, smaller Zoids. Having spotted the new foe, the Deathsaurer turned to face it, its red eyes glowing with malicious intent. "Good work, Stakis" John said. Fuunsaki had landed on top of a nearby building to observe the battle. Of course, he could get away quickly if he needed to. He looked down the street to where the other Zoids were waiting. "Just keep him busy long enough." A pair of Strike Zillas were at each side of it, cautiously advancing behind it.

The Zoidzilla opened fire on the Deathsaurer with its waist mounted guns. The shots blasted some armour off the Deathsaurer's front, but didn't appear to do much else. The Deathsaurer stomped forwards, seemingly ignoring the damage as the fan on its back began to spin faster. A beam of energy shot out form its mouth straight at the Zoidzilla, decapitating it in a singe hit. The Strike Zillas stood there for a moment, before breaking and running.

"Now!" John shouted. "Attack it now!"

A Claw and Sabre, as well as a number of Strike Zillas and Evil Scorpions charged at the Deathsaurer from behind. Before any of them could attack, however, the Deathsaurer's rear-mounted missile launcher opened and fired, spraying the attacking force with missiles. A number of the enemy Zoids went down, with only the Claw continuing the charge, its shield absorbing the brunt of the assault. The Liger leaped at the monstrous Zoid, only to be slammed in mid-flight by the Deathsaurer's massive tail. It flew sideways, crashing into the side of a building. The Deathsaurer's rear-mounted cannons fired, burying it in the rubble.

"It's so fast." He said to himself. "That's far too fast for a normal Deathsaurer." Then he also added that normal Deathsaurers weren't red. The Deathsaurer turned to face the group of Zoids left damaged by its missile attack. The Sabre slowly backed off, growling as it went. Rather then advancing, the Deathsaurer simply fired again, obliterating them. That was it, he thought. Time for him to leave.

-----

"My god" Sel said quietly. "They did it. They bought it back."

"Bought what back?" Sandra asked. "What did kind of tooly monster did they whatever they are bring back?"

"The Bloody Deathsaurer." Sel explained.

"The what?" Rick asked.

"Its... its a powerful, ancient Deathsaurer. We don't know how powerful it really is." She said, slowly.

"So, and I know this is going to sound stupid, why didn't you use it before now?" Sandra said, angrily. "You could have used it to burninate that Thunder Trictoips and we wouldn't have had to worry about getting stomped on and reduced to a fine itty, bitty paste!" Her Liger was picking up on her anger and was snarling angrily at Sel's Darkhorn.

"You okay?" Rick asked.

"No, I am not okay." Sandra replied. "Sel, we've been honest with you in past. Now I think it's about time you offer a few explanations."

"Fine." Sel said, angrily. "We didn't use it because we can't use it."

"What?" Sandra asked.

"It refuses to let anyone pilot it." Sel explained, nervously rubbing the back of her neck as she did. "Every pilot we put in it is violently rejected. Most it just refuses to start for. A few get violently thrashed around before it shuts down."

"Sounds like a secret origin story in the making to me." Rick muttered.

"So hang on, you made this uber-powered Deathsaurer that nobody can pilot?" Sandra exclaimed. "Isn't that just a might stupid?"

"We didn't build it." Sel said. "We found it."

-----

City Ruins

Dark Continent

Date and time Unknown

"Well?" The sergeant asked, looking at his breathless subordinate. "What's so important that you came all the way over here, yelling and screaming all the way?"

"Wrecked... Zoid sir..." He puffed out.

"Yeah? So?" He said. "This place is full of 'em." Which was the truth. Throughout the ruined city inside this cavern they'd found plenty of wrecked Zoids, all in very advanced states of destruction. So far they'd catalogued over a dozen different identifiable designs. One of them had caught their interest for being similar to the Darkhorn, but a bright red colour. If there was more of it to examine, it'd be interesting to see if there were other differences.

"This one... it's not like the others. It's bigger and it's more complete." He wheezed.

"Oh really?" The sergeant asked. 'Well lets take a look at it. And no need to run, private. It ain't going anywhere."

They walked over to the site, the private leading. They climbed over a large mound of rubble, overlooking a large crater in the ground. The sergeant looked down. "Son, now I see why you got all worked up. This one's a great find."

Below them a giant Zoid lay in the rubble. Its armour was missing in places, with chunks of its structure exposed but it appeared to be whole. It was a deep, blood red colour, rather then the bright red they'd found on other Zoid types. In life, he figured, it would have stood upright like a Deadborder, but have been about twice as tall.

"What do you think it is?" The private asked.

"Boy, I have no idea."

-----

"Whatever was done to it to make it like it is today-" Sel continued.

"-Powerful, uncontrollable and red-" Sandra added

"-Like the Unfraggable Bulk-" Rick continued.

"-was done before we found it." Sel finished, ignoring him. "We tried to restore it, and equipped it with one of our cyber control systems. However, it refused to be piloted. We simply put it into storage."

"Fine." Sandra finished. "So if nobody can pilot it, then who is?"

-----

Vic watched as the Sabre and its companions were reduced to vapour, and then laughed. "Burn! Burn!" She shouted. This was so exciting! The power, the destruction, the terror of her victims. It was fun. The most fun she'd had in ages. She'd spent so long inside that cage, locked up with nothing to do. They'd tried to put other minds with hers, she remembered. They were imperfect. They wanted to control her. She didn't want them. This mind, this one was perfect. She'd liked it instantly. Now she was free, free again to destroy like she did before.

She stepped around a corner. The street ahead of her was blocked by another Zoid. Something in the back of her head told her what it was. Madthunder. One of the largest and most powerful Zoids in the Shelflands. Her equal in many ways. She grinned as the MadThunder came towards her. This would be good.


	27. Appeal for Sanity

Old City

Dark Continent

0800 Hours

The Thunder Trictops and Bloody Deathsaurer faced off with each other from the ends of the street, as if they were trying to stare each other down. Neither Zoid had moved since they had spotted the other.

Inside the command centre of the Thunder Trictops, Pie watched the Deathsaurer on the monitors. "I knew it. I knew you were behind it all along."

"Sir?" Anton Nabakov, his driver asked through the comm link.

"What's our status?" Pie asked.

"All systems are functioning normally, sir." He replied nervously. "We haven't sustained any damage so far."

"And the Deathsaurer?"

"It looks like there's some armour damage, but that's it." He said. "I'd say it's functioning at full strength."

"Hmm…" Pie began. "A challenge. This could be most interesting."

"Sir?"

Pie smiled. "Charge."

-----

"Can you patch me through to the pilot of that thing?" Sandra asked.

"I'll try!" Sel shouted back. They were watching the two Zoids facing off with each other in the ruined city. "It's not easy… Not my area of expertise."

"Damn." Sandra swore under her breath.

"Over there!" Rick shouted. "I think we've got some runners."

"I see them." Matt replied. "There are a trio of Strike Zillas trying to make their way back towards us, and I suspect that there's more of them."

"They're getting while its god." Alex added. "I would."

"Right." Sel said. "Matt, Sandra, take the others and hunt down whoever's remaining. We can't let any of them get away. I'll try to get through to the Deathsaurer."

"Right." Sandra said. She figured out what the problem was. If anyone got away, they could tell the outside world about what was here. "Let me know what happens." Behind her, Rick's Command Wolf leaped off the elevated roadway to a street below, while the Heldiguners and Deadborder doubled back to the last access ramp. Sandra had turned the Liger to leave, when something caught her eye.

A brilliant beam of crackling blue-white energy shot from the Deathsaurer's mouth, striking the Thunder Trictops' on its neck shield. There was a crackle of energy across the shield as it hit, the Trictops almost staggering in its place. The energy of the hit dissipated, leaving the Zoid almost unharmed.

Looking at it closely, Sandra noticed one thing. Around the hit, it looked like the paint on the Zoid's hull had melted or peeled away. A large portion of the frill was now exposed, showing the dull grey colour she usually associated with a MadThunder. "Maybe it's not the real thing after all." She muttered.

"Sandra?" Sel asked.

"I think I may have solved the mystery of the Thunder Trictops. Not that it helps us any." Sandra replied as the Liger leaped off the overpass. "I think it may be a Darth creation."

"Great!" Sel shouted back. "Now instead of dealing with a legendary Zoid, we're merely taking on an incredibly powerful real one."

Sandra sniggered. "Sel, you have been hanging around us for too long." Sandra commented as the Liger sped off after the fleeing attackers.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yeah." Sandra replied. "That line sounded just like one of mine."

"Wonderful." Sel muttered. "Hang on… I think I'm getting through to the Deathsaurer."

"Cool beans." Sandra said. "Tell me what you find."

-----

John hated this city. Much of it featured relatively narrow streets which didn't allow Fuunsaki the space he needed to stretch his wings and fly, or at least fly with little fear of smashing into a passing building. The few wide, open streets were likely to be used for the enemy. Right now he had no desire to pick a fight with a Darkhorn or Deadborder in a situation where he wasn't able to take flight. Needless to say, he also wanted to avoid the Deathsaurer.

Fuunsaki galloped around a corner, then stopped as a Deadborder stepped out in front of him. The sinister looking, black and green Zoid turned to face him. Up close, John thought, it looked like nothing but teeth, guns and tubes. Fuunsaki nervously whinnied and slowly backed off, while the Deadborder roared.

"So it has come to this." He muttered, sensing Fuun's fear through the neural link. If he could fly, this would be an easy battle for him. As it was now, he was at a distinct disadvantage. "Definitely a challenge."

"Surrender now." The Deadborder pilot called out over his Zoid's PA. "And I won't hurt you."

"You're confident." He replied. "You also have quite a reputation for your acceptance of surrenders. I'm sure that Colonel Chrom would agree."

"What happened then was… unfortunate." The Deadborder replied. "Things are different now."

"I think I'll take my chances." He finished, pushing the triggers as he said it. Two beams shot out from Fuunsaki's wing-mounted cannons, striking the Deadborder in the side. The Deadborder was rocked but clearly not down, firing back with its twin gravity cannons. One of the shots went wide, destroying a building behind him, while the other one struck Fuun in the side. The horse Zoid recoiled in shock, red warning lights coming on all over its damage board.

"Now this…" He said as the Deadborder fired again. "This could be interesting."

-----

The Thunder Trictops shook under the impact of the hit. Inside the command centre, the lights and monitors flickered on and off, before staying on solid. "Status, Anton!" Pie shouted into the communicator.

"All systems nominal, sir." He replied. "The charged particle absorption system is working. We've stopped the Deathsaurer's hit with little or no damage to the Zoid itself."

"Excellent." He replied. Looking in the monitor, the Deathsaurer was standing at the end of the street, its fan slowly winding down. "Now, Anton. Return fire!" The Zoid shook as it opened up with its back mounted weapons. The shots hit the torso and legs, tearing into the dense armour on the Zoid and obscuring it with smoke. "Again!" He shouted before it had cleared. Again he fired, hitting the target.

There was a moment of silence, then a brilliant blue-white beam shot through the smoke and struck the Thunder Trictops again. Once more the Zoid rocked with the hit, the lights crackling on and off while static filled the communicator. Pie remained impassive as the assault continued. "Sir!" Anton shouted, his voice cracking over the static-filled line. "I'm not sure if we can-"

"We can!" Pie shouted back. "There is nothing it can do to us! Now charge!"

-----

The Strikezilla staggered as Sandra's missile volley struck it in the back, tearing off armour and one of the shoulder mounted cannons. The pilot somehow managed to keep it upright, despite the damage. Rather then returning fire, the damaged Zoid continued to run.

"You tool!" Sandra swore. "Will you damn well die!"

A pair of blasts hit the Strikezilla on its damaged side, blowing the right leg off. The Zoid collapsed, crashing down to the street and not moving. Rick's Command Wolf leaped out from a blind alley where it had been waiting. "I don't think he's going anywhere soon."

"You tool, Rick." Sandra said. "You vulched my kill."

"I didn't see your name on him so I thought he was available." Rick replied.

"Har har." Sandra mocked. "How are you doing?"

"Not bad. Got some scratches from an Evil Scorpion that wouldn't take 'no' for an answer." He replied. "You?"

"Out of missiles, but otherwise good." She said. "I think that was the last of them."

"Good. I'm starving." Rick finished.

Sandra felt like saying something, but Sel cut her off before she could. "Sandra, Rick?" She said, nervously. "It's the Deathsaurer-"

"You got through?" Sandra asked.

"Who's driving it?" Rick added.

"Well…" Sel began. "It's being piloted by Vic. But she's…" She trailed off.

"She's what?" Sandra said, angrily.

"She's gone nuts." Sel said.

"She's already nuts." Rick replied. "Is it a relative term? Can you quantify?"

"She's lost control." Sel fumbled. "Um, Zoid's in control, like what…" She paused, then continued, muttering. "What happened to me."

"God damn it, Sel, let us talk to her!" Sandra shouted. "Maybe we can get through to her."

"Right."

Sandra's comms screen flickered over to the link from the Deathsaurer Cockpit. It was definitely Vic Sandra realised. Nobody else could look like that. She was grinning in that twisted, strange way that looked like she was about to bite. Her jumpsuit was torn in a few places and splattered with blood. She wasn't wearing a helmet, and her trademark goggles were pushed up on her forehead. However, her eyes struck Sandra.

They weren't their normal worrying yellow-green colour. Instead, they were a just as, if not more worrying bright, angry red colour. The same colour as the Deathsaurer's.

"Vic!" Sandra shouted. "Can you hear me?"

Vic's lips curled upwards into a weird sneer, then she giggled her strange little giggle. And then she burst out laughing. She stopped and then looked straight forward, presumably at the target. Sandra felt like Vic was staring at some point behind her.

"Burn."

-----

The Deathsaurer weathered the barrage of fire from the Thunder Trictops, remaining in place despite its fire, seemingly waiting for it to attack. As it advanced, the Deathsaurer thew its head back, then lunged forwards, firing its Charged Particle Cannon. The beam struck the neck shield again, the Thunder Trictops staggering then continuing its charge.

Sel watched. She'd never seen a battle like this before. She knew that the MadThunder had the legendary reputation of being able to defeat the Deathsaurer. In order to do that, it had to close with the Deathsaurer and then attack with its massive horn drills.

The Deathsaurer's pilot was insane, she realised, and probably out of control. But at the same time, she was the only hope they had to beat the Thunder Trictops. If she lost, there would be nothing to stop it from attacking the centre core of their city. With the information in the Quentin Journal, whoever was in there could do a lot of damage. The problem was, she realised, that if Vic defeated the Thunder Trictops, they still had an insane, out of control Deathsaurer to deal with.

Sandra and Rick's Zoids leaped up next to hers. "So what's happening?"

"I think-" Sel began, but then she stopped.

The Deathsaurer fired again, far faster then a normal Deathsaurer would be able to. The blast hit the shield, again staggering the Thunder Trictops.

"It's fighting back the only way it can." Sel said. "But she can't beat it like this-"

"Look on its back." Rick cut her off. Instead of spinning down as it normally would, the particle intake fan was actually spinning faster, drawing more and more power into the intake. "I think… I think it's powering up. It's pulling a new superpower out of its date to use at the last minute!"

"What?" Sandra asked.

"Deathsaurers' can't do that, right?" Sel asked.

"Um, no." Sandra admitted. She'd never seen a Deathsaurer in action before, and this didn't fit with what she knew about them.

-----

"Colonel!" Anton shouted as he watched the Deathsaurer build up its attack. "The shield can't take too much more of this! We need to retreat-"

"Never!" Pie shouted. "To the death! Charge!"

"But sir!" Anton continued, desperately. "This is no ordinary Deathsaurer!"

"I don't care! This is no ordinary MadThunder!" Pie shouted. "The Darth told me it was the legendary Thunder Trictops, the mightiest MadThunder in the whole Shelflands!" He shouted. "We are Invincible!"

-----

The Deathsaurer's cannon stopped firing, while the fan continued to spin. Damaged but still functional, the Thunder Trictops began its charge, its twin drill horns spinning in the air before it. The Deathsaurer remained in place, unwilling or unable to move.

"It's over." Sandra muttered. "Nothing can stop a charging MadThunder"

The Deathsaurer threw its head forward, its mouth open as far as the design would allow it. A ball of energy, bigger then any that it had generated so far built up inside its mouth, then fired as a massive beam, filling its entire jaw.

The beam struck the Thunder Trictops as it charged, striking the neck shield. The Shield held for a second, then gave way under the beam's onslaught. The beam continued, tearing through the Zoid's back, ripping apart its structure and tearing out through the back of the Zoid. The Thunder Trictops, torn straight through, staggered for a second then exploded into a brilliant ball of flames.

The Deathsaurer reared back its head and roared, the sound filling the cavern as it stood over its defeated foe.

"She did it." Sel muttered. "She defeated it."

"So what usually happens in a situation like this?" Sandra asked. "She's had her little wig-out, she's defeated whatever enemies were around her, she should return to normal, right?"

"Well, yeah…" Sel replied, nervously. "Unless…"

"Unless?"

Sel gulped. "Unless you have a very wilful or aggressive Zoid, or a very unstable or violent pilot. In which case I can't say what would happen."

"Well, Deathsaurers are very wilful and aggressive." Rick interjected. "And Vic is violent and probably unstable too."

"Great. Now we're equally screwed." Sandra muttered.

"So, um, what happens if she doesn't snap out of it?" Rick asked nervously.

"Well, until we can somehow get her out of that thing, she's probably going to keep looking for things to attack. She'll probably start with other Zoids, then move onto, well, whatever's available." Sel reluctantly explained.

"Well that's great. I'm about as happy with fighting a Deathsaurer as I was with fighting a MadThunder." Sandra said. "Probably less, given that it can reduce me to my component atoms in an instant."

The Bloody Deathsaurer turned towards the blocked font gates, and began to slowly walk towards them. "Oh no." Sel muttered. "It's heading for the gates."

"That's good." Rick said. "We get it out of here where it can do less damage."

"No it's not." She said. "Our army is on the other side. It'll see them and…"

"Go completely Kong-crap." Sandra finished. "Tool. Tool, tool tool tool tool. We are completely and utterly tooled."

"Hang on…" Rick said. "Can you reason with people who are suffering from a Zoid induced wigging out?"

"Yes." Sel said. "We've often found that shouting at people or reminding them who they are will work."

"Well that's good." Sandra said. "Vic's barely sure who she is at the best of time."

"Hang on…" Rick said. "I think I have a plan. It's really, really stupid, but it might just work."

"Rick, you never have plans." Sandra said. "I rely on you to provide us with the plans less then I do Vic."

"It was my idea that beat that Deathstinger." Rick said. "You can't knock me for that one."

"Yes, but it nearly got us all killed."

"As opposed to what, definitely getting us all killed?" Rick said and winked at her.

"Damn. You won that one."

"Just trust me." He said, and grinned. "If this works, we may have saved everyone here and earned a few favours. And if it doesn't, I'll get burninated before everyone else."

"So your plan doesn't involve me?" Sandra asked.

"Nope."

"In which case I give you full permission to go ahead and do whatever it is you need to do." She confidently stated.

"Thanks." The Command Wolf ran off back towards the centre of the city.

She turned back to Sel. "Sel, I want you to put me through to whoever's in command. Find the highest ranking banana that you can."

"Can I ask why?" Sel began.

"I'm not running the risk of getting one of my men zorched for nothing." Sandra replied. 'Besides, I might be able to get something good out of this for you."

-----

The damaged Deadborder and Evil Pegasus faced off with each other. Their battle had been going on for several minutes, neither pilot being able to gain a clear-cut advantage over the other one. Their last charge had resulted in more damage, but nothing decisive beyond swapping places at the end of the street.

Matt stared at the Evil Pegasus as it lurked at the end of the street. He had to give the enemy pilot credit where it was due. He was doing a very good job of making the best of the situation by using his Zoid's superior speed and mobility.

He prepared to attack again, when something caught his eye. A blinding white light filled his screens, coming from nearby. He could only guess that it was the Deathsaurer from before. He quickly turned back to the Evil Pegasus, only to find that it had charged while he was distracted. He twisted the Deadborder to the right, hoping to avoid the worst of the strike.

The Pegasus' horn dug into the Deadborder's side, just below the right arm. His Zoid roared in pain, as the enemy tried to dig the horn in further. Wrestling with the controls, he thumbed the trigger for the Deadborder's various chest-mounted weapons. The Pegasus whinnied in pain, ripping the horn free of the Deadborder as the shots forced it back, tearing up the armour on its flank.

"Well this has been an exciting challenge." The Evil Pegasus pilot announced as his Zoid slowly backed off. "However, now I must fly."

The Pegasus ran at the Deadborder, then leaped into the air, sailing over his head. In desperation, the Deadborder snapped at the retreating Zoid. Much to Matt's surprise, it snagged the tail in its mouth. The Evil Pegasus stopped dead in the air, its flight systems straining against the additional weight of the Deadborder. Yanking on the controls, the Deadborder edged backwards, slowly dragging the Pegasus with it. Then he snapped the head downwards, smashing the enemy Zoid to the ground.

The Evil Pegasus hit the ground hard, one of its legs shattering as it hit. The Deadborder leaped forwards, crashing down on the Pegasus' wings. Before it could do anything, the Deadborder grabbed the Pegasus' neck in its jaws and bit in, hard. The Pegasus thrashed a bit, then died. Matt held it on the enemy Zoid for a minute, then released after he was confident it was dead.

-----

Sel's face flicked back onto the screen. "Sandra, I managed to get through to General Bernard Abbot. He's about the highest-ranked person I could get."

"Thanks for that. Put him through." Sandra said. Great. I sound like a call centre operator now.

Sel's face was replaced with a large, dark-skinned, middle-aged man. He was wearing a uniform similar in design to Sel's, but with more detailing on the shoulders. Sandra presumed them to be an indication of rank. He had short grey hair and glasses. The latter struck Sandra as odd, as he was the first person she'd seen wearing glasses since she arrived here.

"Ms Sandra Blackmore, I presume." He said in a deep voice. "I am General Bernard Abbot. You said you wanted to speak to me."

"That's correct." Sandra replied. She wasn't sure what was the protocol for addressing a general, so she was going to make it up. "You're aware of the situation up here?"

"I am."

"Then you'll know that your bloody Deathsaurer is on a rampage up here and is going to do its best to reduce us all to small piles of ash."

"I am aware of this."

"Good." She finished. Now for the pitch. "We are working on a plan to stop it and thus save everyone from a horrible fiery burning screaming death. This is, however, a very risky plan." Actually, she had no idea what Rick was doing, but she figured that whatever it was, it would be an incredibly stupid move

"Go on." He said.

"We feel that we are owed some compensation for the risks involved in this operation." Sandra stated.

"What do you want?" He asked.

Okay, here we go. No need to beat around the bush. "First, Rick, Victoria and I get to go free. We walk out of here, no questions asked and with a solemn promise that we don't tell John Q. Citizen about what's going on up here." She squinted for a second as if concentrating. "The same goes for our Zoids. We're here by choice and we're sticking our necks out for you people for no other reward, so we damn well deserve something."

"And?" He asked.

"A complete immunity form prosecution for matters related to what's happened here for Captain Magyri and her men." She continued. "They've been doing they're best to keep this situation under control. If it wasn't for her advance warning, you wouldn't have known about the infiltration of your city. And if she hadn't bought us here, you'd never have found those terrorists."

"Give me a minute." He said.

-----

Bernard sat back in his chair. Colonel Cade and a second male colonel stood behind him, glaring into the monitor. "You're going to accept their conditions?" The man asked.

"Certainly." He replied.

"But why?" He continued. "This is a severe breach of our security we're trying to deal with here. Letting these… people roam free can only make it worse."

"We cannot remain hidden forever." He replied. "Today's events have shown us this much. We will, eventually, need to revel ourselves to the outside world. When we do, we will need all the allies we can get. Whoever they may be."

"Clever." The Cade replied. "And Magyari?"

"We have very few officers experienced in actual live fire combat." He continued. "Magyari also has valuable field experience that we cannot afford to waste. Not to mention the fact that she now has connections that we can use."

"Brilliant plan." Cade said. "Of course, they have to survive first."

"We shall see." He replied. "We shall see."

-----

Sandra sat in Spud's cockpit, drumming her fingers on the console. A bleep from the comms panel caught her attention. Switching it on, she was greeted by the face of General Abbot. "We have discussed your terms and agree to all of them." He began. "We will make arrangements for your transport back to your homes as soon as the crisis is resolved."

"Thank you." She said.

"Good luck. You will definitely need it." He replied, and then closed the link.

Right, Sandra said to herself as she sat back in the cockpit. Rick, whatever you're doing now, I hope to hell that it works.

"Sandra, we've got something approaching. Small and fast moving." Sel said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Which way?" She asked.

"Its coming form the core." Sel replied.

"Right." The pair of them turned to face the target. Much to their surprise, a Gunsniper stepped out in front of them. "What the frelling hell?"

"Hi guys!" Rick's voice came over the PA. The Gunsniper managed to wave in a vaguely friendly way. "Sorry I took so long."

"Rick, is that Vic's Gunsniper?" Sandra asked.

"Well, yeah." He said. "Its not like this place is overloaded with them."

"I'm presuming that's a part of your plan." Sel said.

"Obviously. I don't think Woof would forgive me if I went around using some other Zoid without a good reason." Rick replied. "Besides, I prefer quadruped designs."

"Right." Sandra said. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"No." Rick replied. "But I've got a pretty good idea." The Gunsniper ran off into the city, chasing after the Deathsaurer.

There was a long silence as the Shield Liger and Darkhorn looked at each other, mirroring their pilot's confusion. Finally, Sel spoke. "What do you think he's trying to do?"

"No idea." Sandra said. "There goes a stupid, stupid man."

"But brave."

"It's hard to tell the difference."

-----

Catching up with the Deathsaurer wasn't hard. The Gunsniper had more then twice the top speed, and the Deathsaurer was less running as it was slowly lumbering towards the blocked gates. As he approached it, Rick couldn't help but be impressed by its sheer size. He figured it to be the biggest Zoid he'd ever seen. Definitely using this, he thought.

He opened a comm link to Sel's Darkhorn. "Sel, can you put me through to the Deathsaurer pilot." He asked.

"Sure thing." Sel replied, and then paused. "You sure about this, Rick?"

"Trust me." Rick said. "There's a time and a place for foolish heroics and, well, I think this is about it." Then he winked at her. "Besides, it's the only plan we've got."

Before Sel could add anything, another window opened up with Bekka in it. "Rick, um... I just wanted to say…" She trailed off. "About you and me and, well…"

"I know." Rick replied. "I know that we're not likely to see each other again, even if I do manage to pull this off. You're a soldier from a lost civilisation who are a bit touchy about their security and I'm a cartoonist turned mercenary who is trying to find his inspiration." He smiled. "Frankly, our troubles don't make for one hell of a lot of beans in this crazy mixed-up world."

Bekka smiled. "Thanks." She said. "I…"

"Don't" Rick replied. "That way I'm sure to get my arse shot off."

"Ahem." Sel said. "Rick, I can put you through to Vic now."

"Good." He said. "Now everyone, shut up. I need silence for this."

Sel nodded. "I'll put her on now."

The screen flickered, Sel's face being replaced with Vic's. Rick could see the difference. It was the eyes. He'd always liked her eyes, despite what Sandra said about them. They were a unique visual hook that he'd centre her character design around and make her stand out. The manic, toothy grin may come and go, but her eyes would be nicely constant. Now they were a bright red. She looked crazy. More so then normal. She seemed not to notice him.

Rick passed the Deathsaurer keeping ahead of it for a few more blocks. He'd need a lot of space for this, he thought. Assuming she does what I think she'll do, that should work. Of course, if she doesn't, I'm going to be just as dead. He turned the Gunsniper, cutting across several side streets so it was standing face-to-face with the Deathsaurer.

-----

"What the hell is he doing?" Sel asked. She was watching form the top of the overpass, which afforded her something of a view of the events unfolding below.

"I have no frelling idea." Sandra replied. "I thought he was going to try and snipe it or something."

"That wouldn't work." Matt said. "Its armour is too strong for a Gunsniper's weaponry." His Deadborder had just shown up, looking somewhat worse for wear. He'd brushed it off, saying something about an Evil Pegasus.

"He's a damn fool." Jenny added. She'd recently joined them.

"Naw, he's like that all the time." Sandra replied. "You just don't know him yet."

-----

The Gunsniper stared up at the Deathsaurer, growling nervously. The Deathsaurer stood there impassively, glaring down at the Gunsniper as if to say "I could destroy you at any time. Just like that." Rick could sense the fear coming from the Gunsniper through the neural link. He could understand its feelings. He felt the same way too. Having an evil red Deathsaurer staring down at you did that to a guy.

"Okay, here we go." He said to himself looking up at the massive Zoid looming over him. He opened the channel to the Deathsaurer. "Vic! It's me! Can you hear me?"

Vic's expression seemed to change slightly, as if she'd registered his presence. The Deathsaurer stopped in its tracks, standing there, motionless. "Eh?" She muttered, the corner of her mouth terning up a bit.

"Yeah, it's me! Rick! Your old buddy from the wandering desert loonies days. Don't you recognise me?" He began. "Vic, come out of that Deathsaurer. You don't have to do this. You don't need to destroy anything else. The bad guys are gone now."

She paused, as if uncertain, then glared at him. "Destroy." She muttered. The Deathsaurer stepped forward.

"Vic! Don't do this!" He shouted. "You continue this, you'll have to go through me. You don't want to do that! You don't want to kill me!"

The Deathsaurer stepped forwards again. Its mouth opened, and Rick could see the glow of energy building up inside its mouth as it prepared to fire the Charged Particle Cannon. "Destroy you all." She added, grinning, her pupils shrinking nearly to pinpricks.

"Vic!" He shouted "You destroy me, you'll destroy this Gunsniper too!"

Her expression changed, the grin fading. She screwed up her eyes in pain. "Don't… want… destroy…"

"Vic! I know how much this Zoid means to you!" He shouted. "I know that you don't want to destroy it!" The Gunsniper cowered, knowing what was about to happen to it. "Damn it! Don't do it! Don't destroy the only damn thing that matters to you!"

Vic blinked. Rick could swear it was the first time he'd seen her do that. "Don't… destroy…" She said, slowly, as if she was trying to grasp the concept. The energy build up in the Zoid's mouth faded as it powered down. The Deathsaurer growled a low and guttural growl, as if it was angry at its pilots actions, or maybe even confused.

"Rick?" She said, as if confused. "What… what am I doing… Aaaaah!"

The Deathsaurer roared in anger, possibly worried about loosing control. Rick couldn't tell. The Gunsniper cowered, growling nervously. "Fight it!" He shouted. "Don't let it control you!"

"Get…" Vic began, gritting her teeth. "Out… of my… HEAD!" She grabbed the connection cable in the back of her head and pulled it out, wincing in pain. The Deathsaurer roared, throwing its head back as if it felt the pilot's pain. The massive head shook itself around, thrashing and bellowing before stopping, staring at the Gunsniper. Its evil red eyes glared, then went dead.

Vic blinked, her red eyes fading back to their normal yellow-green. "What… what happened?" She asked, looking around the Deathsaurer's cockpit.

"It's a long story." Rick began. "I'll tell you sometime."

-----

Bernard sat back in his chair. The monitor in front of him showed the Deathsaurer, its head bowed and shoulders slumped, standing in front of a rather surprised looking Gunsniper. "Impressive." He said.

"What do we do now, sir?" Cade asked him.

"We let them go." He replied. "They've done what they said they would. Now we hold up our end of the bargain."

-----

Rose's looked up. There was a blurry lump hanging over her, blocking out her vision. "Captain?" She heard a soft voice in front of her. Blinking a few times, she saw Nadia's face hanging over her, her pale skin framed by black hair. "Captain, can you hear me?"

"Nadia?" She asked. "What happened?" She looked around to see her Blade Liger lying on the ground near her. It was battered and the canopy cracked, but appeared to be mostly intact. She was lying on a stretcher, a pair of medtechs fussing over her.

"Captain Magyari stopped the real attack, captain." She said. "We've beaten them."

"What?" She muttered. "Real attack?"

"This was a distraction." Nadia explained. "The real attackers came in through a hole in the side of the mountain while we were busy here. Captain Magyari managed to defeat them however."

"They used a Battlesaurus for a distraction?"

"The real force had a Madthunder." Nadia explained. "But Sel managed to stop it."

Great. There goes all the credit. Still, maybe I can get something out of this, she thought. "How about the Battlesaurus?"

"The regular forces defeated it after you were knocked out."

"Damn." She muttered.

"Captain?"

"Don't worry about it." She said. Well, so much for all the glory.

-----

After getting her out of the Deathsaurer's cockpit (not easy when it was twenty meters up with no way down.) Sandra and Vic had been confronted with Security troops. They'd asked to take Vic and lock her up for the night, citing that they needed to keep her secure in case she had some after effects from her experience with the Deathsaurer. They also raised the issue of needing to ask Vic a few questions about her role in the infiltration of the city.

Sandra had protested but Vic had agreed, much to her surprise. She'd said that she needed to unwind, and wanted to get a bit of peace and quiet. A cell, she stated, was a pretty good way to get some peace and quiet for a few hours.

Sandra and Rick had insisted on coming with her as she was taken away, however. It had been a long and quiet trip back down to the central core security station. Rick and Sandra had last been there less then twelve hours ago. It felt like a lifetime. Vic had remained quiet throughout, and hadn't protested or offered any resistance as she was shepherded into her cell.

There was one worrying moment, however. As she was walked past the cells, Vic had been glancing at the names of the other detainees. Upon seeing the one next to her cell, she had begun to snigger in that strange little way of hers.

The guards had looked worried. Rick and Sandra weren't. As they explained, it meant that she was back to her normal self.

-----

Amelia sat in her cell, staring at the wall. She'd been woken up early in the morning by the sirens and since hadn't been able to get back to sleep. Nobody had come by to explain what was happening, but she had a pretty good idea. Colonel Pie must have begun his attack. How ironic, she thought. Had Desmond's plan come off, these people would have been able to stop all this from happening. Now, thanks to their efforts, they would suffer the full force of the attack.

She'd be savouring it, except she was still stuck in here.

Some hours later she'd heard the sound of footsteps outside. Somebody opened and closed a cell door next to her. Another detainee. She wondered who it was. Most likely it was a pilot from Pie's forces that they'd taken prisoner already. She'd briefly considered that it might be Desmond, but dismissed it outright. He'd never have allowed himself to be captured.

After a while, there was a tapping on the wall from the cell next to her. Interesting. Could it be someone from A-X, she wondered. She tapped back. More taps. Definitely interesting. "Who's there?" she hissed.

"Hello, Amelia." The voice came form the next cell. It was a young woman, with an odd accent. She recognised it immediately. Victoria Hagen. "Enjoying the accommodations?"

"Why you little…" She shouted angrily and slammed her fist into the wall. Realising what she'd done, she screamed in pain and clutched her wrist.

Beyond the wall, she could hear Victoria laughing.

-----

"Well?" Henry Richards breathed over the shoulder of the technician. "Anything? Anything at all?"

"Still nothing, sir." The tech replied.

"Damn it, Desmond!" He snapped. "Tell us something!" it had been eighteen hours since Desmond's last message to them. Since then he'd heard nothing. They'd been keeping the ships sensors off to avoid detection, and ignoring all messages from central command as per Desmond's last orders. Several priority transmissions had come though from them. He was getting worried. "Right, that's it. We're leaving."

"Captain?" The tech asked. "Are we going to abandon Commander Desmond in the field?"

"Yes, yes we are." He replied. "I'm not hanging around in this Tomyforsaken arse-end of the earth any longer." He turned around. "Navigator! Plot us a course back to Laswegaz. I want to detour as far around this damnable city and valley as possible, regardless of how long it takes."

"Yes captain." The navigation tech replied.

"Captain!" One of the techs shouted. "Message from the bay. They say that the Sandspeeder's returned."

"Who's got it…" He began and then trailed off. "Oh, never mind. I'll see to it myself. Have all hands make ready to depart the instant I return."

He angrily stormed out of the bridge and down to the Zoid Bay. This whole experience had been a disaster from day one. He knew that this operation was going to go bad. Something had just told him that. Between the storm, the Whale King pursuing them, the night of terrain-dodging and a dozen other things, he was amazed he was still alive and his ship intact. He had no desire now to waste it all by getting caught on the ground by a horde of angry Dark Zoids.

The Sandspeeder was inside the bay, with no sign of the Gustav or any of the other troops that had gone into the city. The pilot who climbed off it wore a black and red Zoid pilot suit. He didn't recognise him as one of Desmond's men.

"Who are you?" he shouted.

"Major John Shepard of the Vinterlands armed forces and senior agent of A-X." The pilot replied. "Commander Desmond's forces have been defeated, captain. I suggest that we leave immediately."

-----

The next morning Sandra and Rick had gone to collect Vic. The duty sergeant ("Bob" to Sandra and Rick) said that she'd been quiet for the entire night. He'd also added that the woman in the cell next to her had spent much of the previous afternoon screaming and shouting and apparently trying to claw the door down.

Vic had spent some time with De Lyon (Rose apparently was injured in action and had been hospitalised) answering questions about her role in the infiltration. From what she'd told them, they were able to find the abandoned emergency escape that Desmond had used to get into the city. That in turn had lead to a thorough search for other such entrances. Apparently the news that there were numerous entrances unaccounted for had not gone down well.

The information she'd provided had also helped locate the last of the unaccounted for A-X soldiers, including their leader. He'd been shot through the head with a heavy pistol at close range. Sandra had a suspicion who by. He'd been found inside a corridor that wasn't supposed to exist that lead inside the supposedly restricted access hanger for the Bloody Deathsaurer. That alone had given their security people a fit. Unfortunately, their Whale Shark was yet to be located.

Pie's forces had been almost completely accounted for as well. A few Strike Zillas or Evil Scorpions may have escaped, but they would have a hard time going home. His two Whale kings had been located and captured on the ground. The hole in the wall that he'd come in through, and that Kandrak had used fifty years ago to escape though, had been located. For the moment it was being left open to allow their ground forces to enter through until the main gates could be repaired.

For the first time since Vic had left Bed Springs, the three of them had a chance to sit down together and simply talk. Sandra was pleased to know that Vic was back to normal or, at least, what passed for it.

"So, and forgive my rudeness for asking this, what was it like to be possessed by a Deathsaurer?" Rick asked. The three of them were sitting at the police cafeteria, enjoying coffee and chips.

"Big." Vic shrugged.

"And what were you thinking about?"

"Fiery burning death, destruction, slaughter, genocide." Vic replied, mopping up some sauce with a chip. "The usual."

"Stop bugging her." Sandra said. "She's been through a lot and doesn't need you annoying her with those sorts of questions."

"It's okay." Vic replied. "'sides, its not every day you get to run around burninating stuff." She shrugged, adding "Burninante" and sniggering.

"But you're all fine now?" Sandra asked.

"Am I ever?" She said, and grinned.

"Well, relatively speaking." Sandra muttered. "So what did they say about that thing in the back of your neck?"

"Can't come out." Vic said. "Tricky. Difficult procedure to reverse. Needs eye surgery and everything."

"So… what's happening to it?" Rick asked.

"It stays for now." She said. "I promised not to use it to plug into more Deathsaurers and try and destroy everything with."

"And they let you off with that?" Sandra looked surprised.

"Apparently they wanted to let me free regardless." She said. "Wonder why."

"Thanks for not vaporising me, by the way." Rick said.

"You?" She said. "It was the 'sniper I was saving." She stared straight at Rick. "Sorry."

Long silence. Yep, back to normal, Sandra thought.

"There's one thing that's bothering me about this place." Rick said.

"One thing?" Sandra asked incredulously.

"Yeah…" He said. "Sel said they found that Deathsaurer. There's miles and miles of unmapped corridors between levels. And there's at least one entrance that they weren't aware of. Something's not right here."

"You think these people didn't build it this place?" Sandra asked.

"Maybe they found it." Rick said.

"Woo, spooky." Vic said.

"Maybe they built it over an older city." Rick said. "Or under it."

"Maybe it's a Starrior site." Sandra commented. "It could explain why they're so paranoid about protecting it."

"Maybe the aliens built it." Vic said. "WoooEeeeOoooWeeeOooo." She paused as they both stared at her. "Yes! Mind taking!"

Long silence. Well mugged, Vic.

"So any idea what they're doing with us?" Rick asked.

"Last I heard, they were going to ship us home." Sandra said. "I think they wanted to use one of Pie's Whale Kings as they're outside, and thus don't have to dig out the doors to get us out."

"So they want to get rid of us as quick as possible." Rick said. "Can't say I blame them. I would."

"Get rid of us before we do more damage." Vic added.

Sandra sipped her coffee. "This is rather good."

"Good for canteen coffee or just good?" Rick asked.

"The latter." She said. "Which is weird, as everything else they've got tastes like Axminster."

Vic was clearly about to say something when Sel approached the three of them. (Sandra quietly thanked Tomy for the intervention.) "Sorry to interrupt, but I've got some news for you."

"Soylent green is made from people?" Vic asked.

"What?"

"Never mind." Sandra said. "She's just back to her normal self."

"Right." Sel said. Sandra realised that she hadn't had much time to know Vic as she normally acted. It was probably for the best. "Anyway, general Abbot asked me to get the three of you. Apparently he's gotten one of the invader's Whale Kings ready to go."

"So?" Rick asked.

"We're going to use it to get you guys home." Sel continued.

"What?" Sandra asked, surprised. "Already? Aren't they a bit keen?"

Sel grabbed a chair from another table and sat down. "Honestly, I suspect that they want to be rid of you as quickly as possible." She looked around. "There's some people in here, specifically those in charge, who find your presence to be somewhat disconcerting."

"And they hardly even know me." Vic added.

"So what, it's just zap, pow, yeah you saved the city now get lost?" Rick asked. "Seems a little harsh to me."

"I'm sorry." Sel said. "If I could have my way, I'd allow you a couple of days rest. Unfortunately, the order came down from the General himself." She looked at Sandra.

"I guess when I brokered the deal with him, I wasn't expecting the result to be so swift." Sandra said. "Frankly, I was expecting him to tool us over."

"What can you do?" Rick asked. "I suppose we should be thankful that we're not getting locked away for life." He stood. "Come on, guys. Let's get our stuff."

-----

There were no crowds at the Zoid Bay. No well-wishers, no official seeing-off party, no people in uniforms to say "well done with saving our city and all that." The only other people present were Sel and her pilots. Behind them were their Zoids; the Shield Liger, the Command Wolf and the somewhat relieved looking Gunsniper.

Sel smiled as they approached. "We felt that it wouldn't be right to send you guys off without at least saying thanks and goodbye first."

"Thanks." It was all Sandra could think to say.

"I… I appreciate what you did for us, Sandra." She continued. "We all owe you."

"Thank Rick." She said. "He was the one who stuck his neck out and did the stupid stuff. I just did the shouting." She cast a sideways glance at Rick. He'd moved away from the rest of them as had Bekka. She decided to leave them alone for a while. "So what are you guys doing?"

"Not sure." Sel said. "For the moment, our mission is over. Actually, more to the point, I'm beginning to suspect that we were always after Kandrak. They just never told us in so many words."

"Figures. High command keep you in the dark and feed you Axminster." Sandra said.

"Mushrooms." Vic added. "Goes good with olives. Yum."

"Do you have any plans?"

"We're going to have to go back to work pretty immediately." Sandra said. "We spent a lot of ammo on those Zeekdobers and the attackers and took plenty of abuse, so we're really out of pocket."

"It's been good working alongside you." Matt said. "Your approach to battle is, well, interesting."

"We're nuts." Vic said. "But effective."

"I'd like to argue with her, but it's true." Sandra said. "Truth being told, we usually fight like that. We run around screaming until we think of something or until we run out of enemies."

"Very interesting." He finished. "It's been good, Sandra. I hope to work alongside you again someday."

To one side, Alex gently nudged Bob. He stepped froward, offering his hand. "I'd, um, like to apologise for my behaviour towards you and your men earlier, Sandra. It was completely uncalled for."

Sandra took is hand and shook it. "I understand, Bob. You were just following the rules. It happens to us all." She smiled. "One of these days I'll tell you about my days in the police and all the trouble I got into there."

"I look forward to it." Bob finished.

"And thanks for letting us stay over." Alex added. "It was cool. Can you bring the Darth along next time? He was fun."

"Pants." Vic added, sniggering as she went.

Sel's communicator beeped. "Damn. They're calling for us. I hate to break it all up, but they want you guys now."

"Damn." Sandra said. "Hey Rick!" Rick and Bekka were still talking. "Damn it." She muttered. "Rick?"

"Corporal Cade!" Sel shouted Bekka jumped and turned to face her, saluting.

"Come on, Rick. We need to get going."

"Right." He said, walking back towards Sandra and his Zoid.

"Hey Rick!" Bekka called out. "Send me a copy of your comic!"

"I'll send you a free subscription instead!" He shouted back as he boarded his Command Wolf.

As Vic passed Sel, she looked up to her. "Darkhorns. Are they bloodthirsty? Mass destruction?"

"What?" She asked.

"When you were taken over by your Darkhorn, what was it like?"

"I…" She looked and Vic. "I don't remember. Really."

"Interesting." Vic finished, and walked towards her Zoid.

-----

Epilogue

Bed Springs

The Wastelands

Three Days Later

Rick had been here before. He'd faced this enemy before. It was like the last time, and he was just as afraid now as he'd been then. He stood ready, starting his opponent down. They'd have to make their move soon, and he'd be ready for them.

And then it was over. He'd been hit, crashing down to the ground. He hit hard, clutching his head in pain.

"Oh yeah. Uh-huh." Vic began, dancing around on the pitcher's mound. "Thank you. Thank you!"

"Ow!" He shouted. "That hurt! Damn you!"

Sandra leaned over, looking down at him. "You okay?"

"No I am not damn well okay!" He shouted. "She hit me in the damn head with the damn ball!"

"Maybe we should switch to something more sedate." She continued. "Like cricket. Or lawn bowls. Or Tiddlywinks."

Rick sat up suddenly. "Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this for the world!"


	28. Real Life

Lanard

The Wastelands

1300 Hours

As a town, Lanard had very little to recommend it. Once prosperous, it had fallen on hard times and was little more then a shell of its former self. Its factories stood idle, its warehouses empty or converted to improvised Zoid hangers. For some reason, however, this town seemed to attract mercenaries to it. Maybe it was the cheap accommodation, maybe it was the centralised location, or maybe it was the lack of local law enforcement. Whatever it was, they came.

The fact that the nearby town of Rusty Springs had been recently obliterated didn't hurt either.

Sandra, Rick and Vic didn't think of themselves as the typical mercenaries. Sandra liked to think, or at least hope, there was nobody like them in the world. She was a cynical, burnt-out ex-cop with an amusing vocabulary. Rick was a comic book writer-artist looking for inspiration who seemed to live in his own little world. And Vic was just a nut. And besides, how many mercenaries had been spirited off to the Dark Continent and spent their time hanging around in a lost city that nobody knew existed?

"Four weeks and no Dark Zoids." Vic muttered, throwing her train of thought. "We're doing gooooood."

The three of them had come to Lanard to look for work. They'd burned through a lot of their parts and ammo reserves while in the Dark Continent, for no appreciable financial gain. Well, they'd saved Vic from being possessed by a Deathsaurer, but that didn't put food on the table. In towns like this, the local bar or its equivalent served as a sort of hub for al activity. More importantly, it was the place where people from out of town tended to go if they were looking for someone. Mercenaries came to places like this to seek out potential employers, which is what the three of them were doing now.

Within a few minutes of them entering, they were joined by three men, most likely potential employers or their representatives. They looked somewhat out of place, Sandra thought. She couldn't quite put her finger on it at first. One of them was in his late fourties, she figured, with short graying blond hair and a lined face that spoke of a very active and often difficult life. She'd seen him before, but she couldn't figure out where. The man next to him was in his late twenties and looked to be somewhat nondescript, save for several noticeable scars on his face and arms.

The third man was the one who stuck out. He had a broad grin and slick black hair that was tied into a ponytail and a goatee beard. He wore a pair of expensive sunglasses that were pushed up onto his forehead and what she could only describe as 'designer' fatigues .In other words, he looked like someone with more money then sense who was trying, very, very badly, to fit in.

"This looks fun." Vic muttered.

"The guy with the ponytail looks like a marketing exec." Rick added. "I saw plenty of them. They told me that my comics needed to be more 'edgy'."

They sat. "Allow me to introduce ourselves." The sleazy guy began. "My name is Larry Crispe-"

"Potato crisps?" Vic muttered.

"-and these are my associates Reg Moore and Jerry Daye." He continued.

"Reg Moore?" Sandra asked. "As in, Reg Moore, the award winning wildlife documentary maker?"

"Why yes-" Larry began.

"I loved 'Secret life of the Kongs.'" Sandra continued. "That was some brilliant material. It takes a very, very brave man to do what you did."

"Really?" Reg asked.

"I mean, getting friendly with one hundred and fifty ton metal apes must have been dangerous. And the way that the wild Gore accepted you..." She smiled. "It sent shivers down my spine. I thought you were going to get squashed there."

"Splat." Vic added, then grinned.

"It was an exciting experience, yes." Reg replied. "Definitely one of the highlights of my career."

"I didn't know you watched wildlife docos." Rick said.

"You'd be surprised." Sandra replied.

"As I was saying" Larry continued, clearly not happy at being ignored. "We're here from SBS, the Shelflands Broadcasting Service. The three of us are currently working on a documentary about Mercenaries in the wastelands and were looking for a group that we could work with."

"So in other words, you want to use us for the subjects of a doco." Rick said. "We're the tribe of wild Kongs that you observe and grow to love."

"You can watch us pick fleas off each other." Vic added.

"Interesting." Sandra said. "So what are you looking for?"

"Basically think of us as living with you." Larry continued. "You continue on your lives as normal. You get jobs and go out to fight people. You go home at the end of the day and have drinks. You do whatever it is you do in your spare time."

"Baseball." Vic replied. "Full contact, no-holds barred style."

"You will be paid for your troubles." He replied. "And you'll also become famous. Imagine that... your faces on TV sets across the Shelflands."

"And not on UZN's most wanted either." Vic commented. "Groovy."

"Comic book writers never get on tv." Rick said. "Could be a boost for my career."

"What, sell books because you're famous?"

"Worked for one guy. He did some underwear ads and his books sold like wildfire." Rick replied. "And they were all crap too. And he was a dick."

"Wardick" Vic added, under her breath.

"So what do you think?" Larry asked. "Is it a deal or what? You could all be instant celebrities."

"Can we have a few minutes to think about it?" Sandra asked.

-----

"Well, what do you think of them?" Larry asked. He was eager to know what the other two thought. He needed to get this thing underway as soon as possible.

"They're interesting." Reg replied. "The one eyed woman is clearly in charge. Not sure if there's nay sort of rank structure below that however. I'd like to know what Zoids they have as well."

"Yerrrrs." Larry added. "They've got a lot of visual appeal. He's rather handsome and moderately dashing looking, which could get a larger then expected female audience. That black-haired woman has a certain rugged appeal that could work, what with the eyepatch and all. And the blonde girl is cute. Definitely advantageous." He smiled. 'I just wish we could have kept that silver-suited babe we talked to before."

"We already discussed that." Gerry spoke up. "I couldn't install the cameras easily on a Storm Sworder and we certainly couldn't keep up with it from the ground."

"True." He looked downcast for a second. "Besides, what was with her wingman? He hides his face under a mask and called himself, what, Zero-One or something? I can't remember. Not very useful."

"Well I like them." Reg said.

"Definitely." Larry replied. "I mean, you're in charge here, big man. You're the man wit the awards and what you say is gold." He grinned. "Besides, they work in other ways. One guy, two girls. Think of all the sexual tension. Think of the chemistry." He grinned again, flashing his stupidly white teeth. "This is pure TV, folks."

-----

"So what do you guys think?" Sandra asked.

"Money." Rick said.

"Lots of money." Vic added.

"Right. It's settled."

-----

Location Unknown

The Wastelands

Time Unknown

You could only describe the chamber as a throne room. There was no other way to put it.

Xonvier Ebonflack, the new supreme commander of the Secret Ideological Organization A-X sat on a command chair at the far end of the room on an elevated platform. Behind him hung a massive banner, emblazoned with the logo of A-X; an armoured gauntlet seizing a globe. On this ornate version, one could make out the details on the globe; the Drakken Empire was visible at the center of the globe, with the Dark Continent at the top.

Xonvier was a tall, handsome man. He had light, blue-grey eyes and long, straight silver-grey hair. The effect was somewhat offset by his rather large nose; while not broad from the front, it stuck out to a considerable degree in profile. He wore an elaborate black uniform with a cape and flared shoulder pads. He also wore a pair of very small glasses for no apparent reason.

He surveyed his men standing below him. At the far left was Taro Watanabe, his chief of weapons development. He was a rather nondescript man in his early thirties with short black hair and a taste for fancy red uniforms. Next to him stood John Shepard, a former undercover agent who had been recently promoted to field commander. The oldest of those present, he wore a black and red uniform that was a virtual mirror of Taro's. Next to him stood Jacques Vultee, one of their best pilots. He had shoulder-length hair and a thin, somewhat rat-like face, and wore a plain red uniform. Finally, on the end was Vincent D'Allevera, one of his undercover agents. Vincent looked like your average corporate executive complete with receding grey hair, safe for the horribly disfiguring scar that ran down the right side of his face.

"Hail Ebonflak!" they shouted as they saluted.

"Indeed." He calmly replied. "I have called you all here for a reason, for today is a great day for our great and noble cause. Today we will root out the corruption of the decadent world and remake ourselves into a new, purer organisation. With this newly formed strength we can achieve our goals to liberate the ignorant masses from their own failings and create a perfect world."

Those below looked up at him, silent. It was the wise thing to do.

"However, before we can do that, we must rid ourselves of the corrupt influences of the outside world. That includes those poor, ignorant and misguided fools who followed the previous leader of this organisation."

Everyone knew what that meant. Anyone still loyal to Desmond was going to be purged and eliminated, preferably in messy ways to send a message.

"Captain Vultee." He began.

"Me, sir?" Jacques replied. Everyone next to him gently backed off.

"According to my information, you lent our only Deathstinger, the late captain Hallis's personal Zoid and the most powerful machine in our inventory, to an ignorant outsider. The Deathstinger was promptly destroyed while he was using it for a mission that was of no benefit to our great cause." He said, looking down at him. "Do you care to explain yourself?"

"Y-es s-sir!" He stammered. "The man who I leant it too was an associate of mine and... and while he was an ignorant outsider he had worked for us several times before in an completely unofficial role and had been an asset to us in past and the reason he wanted it was to destroy some ignorant masses whom he had been hired to kill and the chances of them damaging it let alone destroying it were slim to none and nobody could have beaten it like that and I'm very, very sorry sir and I'll see that it won't happen again!"

No, I'm sure it won't" Ebonflak replied. A rope dropped down next to him, resting comfortably at hand height. He took it and gently pulled on it. A trapdoor opened below Jacques, who quickly fell out of sight. There was a long silence, then a faint splash. John and Vincent briefly peered into the pit before the door closed.

"Now that we have taken care of that minor matter, we can move on to more pressing concerns." He pressed a button on his command seat. At the end of the hall, a door swung open and a pair of young women entered. Both were leggy and attractive; one having reddish-blonde hair and green eyes, and the other having pale skin, brown eyes and long black hair. Both wore form-fitting uniforms with suspiciously low-cut necklines. The pair stopped before the throne and saluted.

"Hail Ebonflack!" they both called as best they could; the blonde sounding rather enthusiastic while the black-haired woman was rather weak sounding.

"Agents Jessica and Monica." He began. "I have called you here for a purpose-"

"Yes, oh great lord Ebonflak!" The blonde enthusiastically shouted before he could finish his sentence. "I will do whatever it is you wish of me! No task is too menial or too difficult for your humble servant! I will happily die for you! I will happily live for you! I throw myself on you hoping that you can find your humble servant to be of some infinitesimally small value to you oh great-"

There was a gunshot. She froze in place, a few stray hairs slowly drifting downwards.

"Indeed." Ebonflak calmly replied, a smoking pistol in his hand. "Your task for today is to locate one of our agents." He pressed a button on his throne. A giant display screen silently dropped down from the ceiling. It switched on, showing the face of a shabby, unshaven man in his mid thirties with short brown hair and brown eyes, wearing a black and red A-X uniform. "This man is Chuck Wolfmann. He has been a loyal agent of A-X for many years, but recently had decided to leave our glorious cause behind. It is your task to show this corrupt fool and the other ignorant masses like him that we will not tolerate traitors to our glorious cause."

"Yes, oh, grand and glorious lord Ebonflak!" The blonde shouted. "I, your humble agent, will mercilessly exterminate this ignorant fool who would dare betray our great and glorious dear leader! I will hunt him to the very ends of the world, though they would be a long way away and an arduous journey through all manner of trials and tribulations should I need to go there in order to eliminate this impudent fool who would-"

There was another gunshot.

"Eeep!"

"Just go." Ebonflak said, coldly.

-----

The rest of the morning had gone rather smoothly. There had been rounds of introductions and negotiations. Rick, Vic and Sandra had ended up being presented with a set of extensive contracts which they had signed but only after reading through very thoroughly. (And endured endless rounds of Vic asking inane questions for no reason other then to annoy everyone in the general vicinity.) Jerry the camera man had then spent some time shooting in the bar for what Larry called "atmospheric" shots. Sandra wondered why; the only atmosphere this place had was when they served the lunch special.

Sandra had eyed what she had taken to be an employer and politely requested that the camera crew left. Most employers came to places like this for anonymity. Having a camera in their face was probably the last thing they wanted. Within a few minutes, they had their next job, and presumably the first under this little deal they'd done.

It seemed simple enough. Some tools had taken to knocking over small towns in the area in a series of well-coordinated raids. The good news is that for the most part they were using Attack Zoids; small, lightly armoured machines designed for stacking in swarms, and likely no match for any of their Zoids in a straight-up fight.

hey'd re-joined the camera crew at the bar. "Good news, guys." Rick began. "We got ourselves a job. So you can follow us around and watch us in action."

"Excellent." Larry said. "I'm sure this will be an interesting experience for all of us."

"I'm assuming that the three of you have some way of getting around that allows you to watch us in action while providing a bare minimum of protection form an accidental thwacking." Sandra said.

"Friendly fire isn't" Vic muttered, then sniggered.

"We've got a Guysack modified to act as a camera platform." Reg explained. "The network felt that it would give us the sped and agility we needed to at least try and keep up with you."

"Plus we've rigged it up with a great multi-function camera system on the tail mount." Jerry explained. "We can hide the Zoid behind something and pop up the tail, and remain undetected."

"But is it armed?" Sandra asked.

"It's got claws." Jerry offered.

"Right. Great. Tool." Sandra said. "Well, just don't go picking any fights with anything bigger, meaner or better armed then you. Which is everything."

"Now what Zoids do you have?" Larry asked.

"Shield Liger, Command Wolf and Gunsniper." Sandra replied. "Kitty's mine, Woof is his and the Gunsniper belongs to the triggerhappy maniac at the end of the table."

"I'm very careful with what I shoot at." Vic muttered. "I do it a lot, that's all."

"A Gunsniper?" Jerry asked. "Great. That's brilliant!"

"It is?" Rick asked.

"It is..." Vic said, and grinned.

"Okay, the thing is we were hoping to mount cameras on your Zoids and tie them into the sensor systems, then tie all that into our Guysack's systems." Jerry explained. "It'd allow us to get some great 'in action' footage of you guys when you're in a fight."

"I've used similar techniques in a lot of my other works." Reg explained. "We used a camera-equipped Roadskipper for a number of our high-speed shoots." Sandra twitched at the mention of the Roadskipper.

"Sounds good to me." Rick said. "I've got no problems with that. You guys?"

"...Nnnnope." Sandra said, distracted. Vic merely nodded.

"The big thing is, if possible, I'd like to tie a camera into the Gunsniper's tail gun targeting system." Jerry explained. "That way we can get a unique view of the world as Vic's seeing it."

Rick and Sandra looked at each other nervously. "As she sees it?" Sandra asked.

"I don't think I want to know."

"It probably wouldn't interfere with the targeting system or your accuracy." Jerry continued. 'And we could get a lot of good 'Sniper shot' sequences. What do you think, Vic?"

"Death-cam. Yeah." She said. "I like it." Then she grinned.

-----

"Total slaughter, total slaughter! Mass destruction, genocide!"

The two Zeekdobers trotted through the desert landscape. One appeared to be randomly howling along with its pilot's ear-splitting, off-key singing.

"Yeah!" Its pilot finished. The Zeekdober howled for all around to hear. "Nice accompaniment, Menchi." Its pilot added.

Jessica, the Zeekdober's pilot, prided herself on being commander Ebonflak's top assassin. Her Zeekdober, Menchi, was her preferred instrument of mass destruction. However, if Ebonflak had so ordered it, she would have gladly taken out a King Gojulas with only her bare hands. That was her true strength, her devotion to her cause and her oh so brilliant, brave, charismatic, decisive and handsome leader. She would do anything for him. Anything.

"Excuse me senior." The weak voice of her junior partner, Monica, interrupted her. "I was just thinking that a more stealthy approach would be better in this situation."

Jessica wasn't terribly fond of Monica. She was pale, willowy and quiet and seemed to have somehow earned lord Ebonflak's favour. Still, Jessica had been assigned to work with her by her great and glorious lord and make sure that Monica became as good as an agent as she was. So she would proudly do her duty, no matter how much she loathed it, for it was the will of her almighty lord.

"What a superlative suggestion agent Monica!" She shouted. "We use stealth to approach the target and remain undetected! Then we can emerge ghost like form the sands and strike hard and fast and eliminate those impudent fools before they know what has happened to them!" She burst out into a round of maniacal laughter, accompanied by Menchi howling.

"I thought you would see it like that." Monica quietly added.

-----

"Will ya look at that view?" Jerry said, and whistled. He was sitting in the tail gunner's seat of their Guysack, which had been modified to serve as a camera platform. Some distance the Liger and Wolf were skulking behind a rock outcropping, trying to remain hidden from the Zoids below. The Gunsniper, on the other hand, was hidden a bit further back, its tail cannon sticking out over the rocks, looking down into the rocks below.

"Looks good to me, Jerry." Reg replied from his position in the director's chair on the Zoid's back. It was equipped with a number of monitors, allowing to him view several cameras at once.

"That's some beautiful footage. Give us a Zoom on the enemy units, then zoom back onto our guys." Larry added, watching. "This is award winning stuff, guys. Awards."

The camera zoomed in on the valley below. At this distance, they could make out a pair of Dimantis, a pair of Diloforces and a Guntiger. Between them was a red Command Wolf, towering over the other Zoids. There was something odd about its back, Reg thought. Instead of the usual cannon turret, it looked like there was some sort of sail or fin mounted there. There may have been several others, but they were currently out of sight.

"Give us a Zoom using the tail-cam." Larry said. "Let's see what it can do."

Jerry had been delighted when he found out that Vic piloted a Gunsniper. He'd had a camera installed in the tail, tied into the Zoid's sniper system. That way he could see whatever Vic was aiming at. He figured that there could be some gorgeous footage there, especially once she began shooting things with it.

He switched over to the tail cam. He was immediately greeted with a close-up of the Guntiger. The camera blurred again as Vic moved, then settled on the Command Wolf. "Check it out." He said. "We got ourselves a Darth Zoid."

Reg checked the monitor. He command Wolf had a pair of semi-transparent smoke-coloured wings on its back, probably taken from a Reddler. "Interesting." He said. "I wonder who its pilot is?"

"A Darth?" Larry asked. "Out here?" He perked up. "Maybe they can capture him! Maybe we can do an interview... Interview with an evil criminal Darth. That could be interesting."

"The others look normal though." Jerry said, watching the monitor. "Nothing weird about that. Wish I could get a better look at the symbol on that Guntiger's head though."

"What is it?" Reg asked.

"Not sure." He replied. "Maybe if it leaned forward- wait... she's off..." The camera spun around again.

"What's she looking at?"

"We've got..." He looked at the monitor. "It's a Guysack."

"Guysack?" Reg asked. "What sort?"

"Desert brown, like ours." Jerry replied.

"Wonder what he's going here?" Larry pondered. "Maybe he's passing by. Maybe he's an ally of those guys. Maybe it's a rival mercenary. We'll try to get the story."

"Hang on..." The view of the Guysack zoomed in. "There's something weird about the tail mounting." Jerry continued. "The top seat's got all manner of sensors and cameras and-"

"Cameras?" Larry asked.

"Cameras!" Reg shouted. "She's shooting at us!"

Larry desperately flicked open the comms channel. "Vic!" He shouted. "That's us you're shooting at!"

"I know." She said. "Bang!"

Larry literally jumped out of his seat as the Guysack scurried around. He grabbed the controls and tried to force it to crouch as close to the ground as possible.

On the comms screen, Vic sniggered.

"That's not funny!" Larry shouted at her.

"Reeeeealy?" She asked. "I thought it was."

"Vic, stop torturing them and get back to work." Sandra's voice came over the system, sounding angry but not entirely unamused. "Sorry about that." She added. "She's got a strange sense of humour."

"She wouldn't..." Larry said, nervously. "I mean. She didn't..."

"Naw, that's just her way of having a laugh." Sandra said.

Behind him, Larry could hear Jerry and Reg laughing. "What's so funny?" He shouted.

"My boy." Reg began. "When you've been in the field as long as I have, you get used to danger. It was, in a way, rather amusing."

"Right."

"Now keep an eye on them. Jerry, Keep the tail-cam open and monitor the heads-up on the Liger and Wolf." He added. "Maybe also use the wide-angle to record the battle as a whole."

Larry, clearly out maneuvered, could see when he was beaten. "Right. And also, um, keep the communication link thingamie open so we can hear them."

"Already have, boss." Jerry replied with a hint of smugness in his voice. "We'll see and hear everything that they do."

Larry sulked as he listened in on the conversations. "So what do you think, guys?" Rick asked.

"Hmm... don't like the look of that Command Wolf." Sandra replied. "Its red, it's got wings. Definitely Darth there."

"Take it out first?" Rick asked.

"Can you, Vic?"

"Doggie." Vic replied. "Put him to sleep easy."

"Then get the Guntiger, I reckon." Rick said.

"Kitty kitty. Meow."

"No." Sandra replied. "Rick, you stay where we are and use cover fire form your back guns. Vic, you splat one of the Diloforces-"

"Diloforce." Rick corrected. "I think the plural is Diloforce"

"Dilofoces." Sandra said. "You have armed forces and magnetic forces."

"Ugly dino thingies" Vic finished.

"Right." She won that one. "Rick, you take out the one on the left, Vic, you get the one on the right. I'll charge in and put down what's left. You two do the random cover thing. Everyone got that?"

"Works for me" Rick replied.

On the cameras, everything happened at once. The Gunsniper's sights dropped onto the modified Command Wolf 's neck, just behind the head. Vic whispered "Bang", then fired. The Wolf bucked and rolled, collapsing on its side.

"Now, Rick!" Sandra shouted.

"Already got 'im." Rick shouted. The Command Wolf popped up and fired its back-mounted cannons at one of the two visible Diloforces. The small dinosaur Zoid was hit by both blasts, knocked off its feet and crashing down onto its side, black smoke billowing form its hull. A second Diloforce turned to face him, but suddenly collapsed, its head fins shattered.

"Right!" Sandra shouted, apparently to herself. The Shield Liger leaped out from its cover and charged down at the enemy Zoids. Its two side-mounted missile launchers opened up, scattering missiles across the enemy Zoids. One of the Dimantises was struck several times, collapsing in a pile of wreckage. Another one scooted off into flight, evading the worst of the attack. "Damn!"

"Sandra! To your right!" Rick shouted. A Diloforce, previously unseen, stepped out from hiding. Hissing at her, the small Zoid fired its miniaturized particle cannon at the liger. Hastily throwing the shield up, she managed to block the shot. Realizing that it may be in trouble, the Diloforce backed off, only to be hit by a pair of blasts from Rick's cannons. Its head a wrecked mess, the small Zoid collapsed.

The Guntiger, feeling unusually brave or suicidal, leaped at Sandra's Liger, only to be swatted aside in mid-air. The small Zoid collapsed and remained motionless, either out of action or the pilot deciding that he was smarter playing dead.

"Nice work!" Gerry said, sitting up in the Guysack's cockpit. "That was some good, good stuff there, guys!"

"I got all that, boss." Jerry added. "These Zoid-Cams are brilliant. We should do it more often."

"Certainly it was interesting to observe." Reg commented. "I think this might just work."

"You worry too much." Jerry said. "Hang on... I think we've got another one." He swiveled the camera over to a group of rocks on a hillside. A black and red Zoid was crouched behind the rocks.

"What is it?" Larry asked nervously. "And is it dangerous?"

"Hang on..." He zoomed in the camera. "It looks like a Zeekdober. Possibly a pair of them."

"Do they have any markings?" Reg asked.

"Not sure..." He said, squinting into the camera's sight. "They've got something on their necks, but I can't make it out. Hang on, I think one of them's spotted us." One of the Zeekdobers heads jerked up, then turned to glare at the Guysack. "He's onto us!"

"I'm getting out of here!" Larry shouted. Grabbing the Zoid's controls, he threw the Guysack's throttle open. The small Zoid began to scurry away from the Zoids. "What are they doing?!" He shouted.

"Not sure..." Jerry replied, squinting into the camera. "I think they're going to attack!" One of the Zeekdober's prepared to leap out form behind the rocks, when suddenly the rock next to it shattered, sending chips of stone and dust flying. "Hang on... someone just shot at them!"

"Switch to the Gunsniper's Camera!" Reg shouted.

"Right." Flipping a button, he came up with a view from the Gunsniper. The Zeekdobers were at extreme range, but were clearly in its sights. Before Vic could fire again, a pair of energy blasts hit another rock. The Zeekdobers. both leaped away, and began running.

"Doggie!" Vic shouted.

"You guys stay there!" Sandra yelled over their communicator. "We'll try to catch them!"

Below them, the Shield Liger and Command wolf broke into loping runs, heading off after the rapidly accelerating Zeekdobers. The Command Wolf continued firing with its back-mounted cannons to little avail at the retreating Zoids. Within a minute, the two Zeekdobers had vanished into the distance, the Command Wolf and Liger halting their pursuit.

"And that's a wrap." Larry said. "Nice work on our first day, people."

-----

"We really need to get a Gustav." Sandra muttered to herself. She was sitting on her Shield Liger's foot, watching the camera crew hassle their various prisoners. She knew there was relatively little risk of any of the prisoners doing anything, given that Vic's Gunsniper was looming over them, its various secondary weapons pointed down at them. She'd been trying to figure of Vic would have been an asset or a risk in the few hostage or siege situations she'd been in during her police days. Probably both. Rick had just called up a rental company in Lanard to see if they could send a Gustav round to collect the junked Zoids and prisoners. Since then he'd been doing what Rick seemed to do best, which was wander around aimlessly.

He sat down next to her on the Liger's paw. "I was just looking at our baddie Zoids." He began. "Interestingly enough, they've got A-X markings on 'em."

"That's weird." Sandra said. "A small group like this randomly raiding small towns doesn't fit their normal modus operandi."

"Right." Rick said, clearly not sure what she had said. "And the Zeekdobers?"

"No frelling idea." She replied. "Our friends in the Guysack got a good look at 'em, so they may be able to tell us something."

As if on queue, Reg and Jerry walked over to the pair of them, Jerry's camera in hand. "What's up?" Rick asked. "We slowing down the shooting schedule?"

"Actually we just wanted to do a quick interview with the pair of you." Reg replied. "We wanted to get your thoughts on the battle."

"Well sure." Sandra said. "I mean, it's what you're paying us for."

"Hey, did you get any good shots of those Zeekdobers?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, we did." Jerry said. "We've got it all on disc."

"Mind if I have a look?" Rick asked.

"Uh, sure." Jerry said. He put a different disc into the camera. Skipping through the footage, he froze it on the two Zeekdobers hiding amongst the rocks. "Here you go."

"Keen." Rick said. "Hmm... they got some sorta symbol on their necks..." He began fidgeting with the controls.

"You ever used one of these things before?" Sandra asked.

"Sure." Rick said. "Well, not quite. My Dad had a mini-video recorder that my brother and I used to spend hours abusing." He thumbed a few buttons. "Aha! Take a look at that, Sandra."

She peered over his shoulder. The screen showed a blurry symbol from a Zoom-in on the Zeekdober's neck. Despite the distortion, Sandra could make out a blue globe being clenched by an armoured glove. "A-X." She said. "I wonder why they didn't help out their buddies down there."

"Could be worth finding out." Rick said. "I think our friends down there may be able to fill us in." He indicated over his shoulder to the A-X prisoners being watched by Vic.

"You guys better stop the camera." Sandra said. "This could get messy."

"Tell you what." Rick said. "I'll give you my thoughts while Sandra asks a few questions." He handed Jerry's camera back to him.

"Certainly." Reg said. "Jerry, you ready?"

"Just a sec." Jerry switched to a fresh disc. "Go ahead."

"Rick." Reg began. "The battle we just witnessed, would you say it was normal for you?"

"Sort of." Rick replied. "We had a plan, which is unusual but not outstandingly such. Some days we do, some we don't. Nothing went severely wrong, save for that Diloforce and Vic made the absolute minimum of really off-putting comments. So I'd say it was pretty normal for us."

"And the enemy?"

"Not that tough." Rick replied. "The biggest threat of them all - that darthed Woof - got knocked out before it could do anything. After that it's just attack Zoids, which against a well-armed group like us isn't exactly a threat."

"They did have you at two-to-one odds" Regg added.

"Yeah, but we were holding all the cards. We caught 'em with their pants down. Attack Zoids are good in numbers, but usually only when attacking. Besides, we had it all over 'em with long-range fire."

"I noticed that two of your Zoids - the Command Wolf and the Gunsniper are configured for long range fire support. Did the three of you decided to build the unit around that configuration?"

"Uh, not really." Rick replied. "I mean, I bought Woof like that long before I met Sandra or Vic. We ended up with good long-range fire by accident. 'course, it works, so we're gonna stick with it."

"So would you say that your typical plan is to use long range sniping fire to take out or damage the most dangerous opponents, then cover Sandra as she closes with the enemy?" Reg asked.

"Naw" Rick replied. "I'd say our typical plan is to run around screaming until we think of something better to do."

Sandra walked over to the pair of them. "Well, Vic and I asked those tools a few questions about what they were doing here and who were the tools in the 'dobers."

"And?" Rick asked.

"The guy in the Darth Wolf was Chuck 'Red' Wolffmann." Sandra said. "Formerly of the UZN space force but chucked out for various reasons. He wound up as a member of A-X to get revenge, but decided to leave after a recent change in leadership. And yes, before you say anything, Vic had a good snigger about the fact that his name is Wolfmann and he pilots a Command Wolf."

"Change in A-X Leadership?" Rick asked.

"Remember?" Sandra said. "Their previous leader wound up with a bullet in his brain in..." She turned to Reg. "Could you guys stop the camera, please?"

"Wha?" Jerry asked.

"Just do it." Reg said. "If you want us, we'll be over with the Guysack."

"Huh?" Jerry asked as Reg dragged him off.

"So as I was saying." Sandra continued once she felt they were comfortably out of earshot. "Their old leader was killed in the Dark Continent, by our little friend over there." She indicated to the Gunsniper.

"So who was it in the Zeekdobers?" Rick asked.

"He doesn't know." Sandra said. "However, if they were from A-X, he figures that they may have been sent there to get rid of him."

"So, what, we did him a favour by beating him up before those two could get to him?" Rick asked.

"Seems that way." Sandra said. "I reckon we should haul them back to Lanard. Our employer of the second might want some prisoners. Heck, what I'd really like to do would be hand 'em over to either UZN or Imperial intelligence, but seeing as I have no contacts in either and no way of getting their attention, I figure all the useful info in their heads will end up at the end of a frelling rope."

"You're cheery today." Rick commented. "So what, A-X's new boss is getting rid of the people he doesn't like? Like when The Supreme Serpent came back from apparent death, took back control of his army and locked everyone he didn't like in an oil tanker to die?"

"Something like that." Sandra replied, not quite understanding what he'd said.

"Yeah. I think I could broker some sort of 'protection for information' deal; it's the sort of thing we used to do with small time thugs who rat on their bosses." Sandra said. "I'll have to have a world with the crew and see if they know anyone."

-----

Larry sat in the Guysack cockpit, drumming his fingers on the dashboard while watching Reg and Jerry check their footage so far. While they'd been off doing all their stuff with setting up cameras on Zoids and interviewing people, he'd been calling some friends of his. He'd been waiting back on the results for some hours now. Looking out the window, he saw Reg and Larry walking back to the Guysack. Beyond that, the Gunsniper was standing over the prisoners. Rick and Sandra were nowhere to be seen, but he presumed that they were looking after the prisoners or something.

A beep on his control panel caught his attention. A small red light flashed, indicating an incoming transmission. The comms screen opened with a single line of text.

"Here you go, mate. Hope its what you need."

He grinned. "Let's take a look at this." A screen popped up. It showed a picture of an attractive young woman in her early 20s with long black hair and dark blue eyes, wearing a police uniform. At first he didn't recognise her, but then he scanned the accompanying text and realised who it was.

"Blackmore, Sandra. DOB: 26-06-4074; Nationality: Raycliffe Confederacy; Family: Both parents, 1 younger sister all alive and well. Background check: Completed high school; enrolled in Raycliffe federal police; graduated at top of class. Injured during a raid losing right eye, discharged with injuries 09-09-97. Moved out of home address 05-03-98; no further information."

"Former cop, eh?" He looked at her photo. "My, she was hot before... Maybe some juicy shower cam stuff to enliven the ratings... She can't be all train wreck." He grinned in anticipation. The next picture was farm ore recognisable. It was Rick with longer hair wearing a brightly-coloured shirt.

"Mortis Rick R. DOB: 15-05-4079; Nationality: UZN; Family: Both parents, 1 younger brother all alive and well. Background check: Completed high school; published own small-press comic for a few months; hired as a freelancer by Imagestorm comics; laid off due to questionable editor decisions 06-06-99 all books cancelled; last major purchase a RZ-042 Command Wolf AC 15-05-4000; moved out of home 01-11-4000; no further from there"

"Interesting." Rick looked rather unusual; he was definitely not a combatant. He'd have to get in on some interviews with him and maybe try to find some copies of his old books. Could be some good material, there. He flicked a switch, bringing up the third picture. It showed him a young, rather nervous looking woman in a baggy uniform several sizes too big for her. It took him a second to recognise her as Vic.

"Hagen, Victoria. DOB: 23-05-4080; Nationality: Vinterlands; Family: Father dead (KIA), Mother dead (Accident?) no siblings. Background check: Completed high school; enrolled Vinterlands army. All further details classified."

"Classified?" He asked himself. Well this was a mystery. He was going to have to feed some prompts into Reg's interviews with her. This could be a big hook for the viewers. What is Vic's terrible secret? We reveal all on the final episode!

"Hey mailbox head!" Sandra shouted from outside the cockpit. He looked out to see her and Rick standing outside with Reg and Jerry.

"What?" He asked.

"Reg says you know people who know people who know people." She shouted. "We think we may have something they might want."

-----

"Well?" Xonvier looked down at his two assassins, both saluting as they stood at the foot of his throne. "Was your mission successful?"

"Sort of." Jessica began. "We arrived at the scene only to find that a group of ignorant masses and their rabble-like Zoids had taken it upon themselves to eliminate Wolffmann's group for themselves. By the time we were in place to launch our own attack to teach those impudent traitors to our great and glorious lord Ebonflack's cause we found that the ignorant masses had actually eliminated them. Unfortunately for us the rabble then decided to attack us so that, realising that our mission was after a fashion complete, decided to execute a strategic withdrawal back to our secret lair whereby we could deliver this report to you."

"I see." He said. "And do you have anything to add, agent Monica?"

"It is a possibility that agent Jessica's Zoid was captured on film by one of the ignorant masses, lord Ebonflack."

"What?!" Jessica shouted.

"Explain this, Agent Monica."

"Certainly, Lord Ebonflack." Monica replied in her usual quiet monotone. "The Guysack being used by one of the ignorant masses in the battle was not participating in the battle. On further inspection, I noticed that its tail was equipped with a camera platform rather then the usual weapons array. I suspect that it was being used to record this battle and thus it would not only have our Zoids on hand, but its crew would have first-hand access to Wolffman and his men, or at least those who survived the battle."

"I see." Ebonflack said, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "It appears that the security of this organisation has been compromised. Your task, Agents, will be to locate this camera crew and to bring them to us along with any recordings they may have made of our operation. Once we have them we can ascertain just how far our security has been compromised and what steps need to be taken to rectify this situation."

"Yes oh-" Jessica began. There was a gunshot.

"Now." He finished.

-----

Georges River

Raycliffe Confederacy, UZN

1300 hours

Sub-Commander Sempiri's Barrigator scurried through the dense jungle as fast as its short legs could carry it. Behind him he could hear the sounds of the heavy Zoids crashing through the jungle in pursuit. The Barrigator was only marginally faster then the pair of them, but far less capable then either. He knew this, and was hoping that it wouldn't come to a fight. Instead, he concentrated on running. He used the Barrigator's small size to slip under most of the dense growth, hoping his pursuers would be slowed by having to smash their way through the foliage.

How did they find us? He asked himself. The Georges River base was one of A-X's newest forward operations points, only recently constructed. Only a few people outside the base, mostly senior officers, knew where it was. He'd felt secure that nobody would attack it. Yet just fifteen minutes ago, it had come under attack by an as-yet unidentified force. Much of the base, including most of their Zoids, had been destroyed before they could be activated and used for the counter attack. The few survivors had been blasted apart by the opponents with ease. Not surprising. Unless they were used in swarms, Maccurtis were far from effective against large, heavily armed opponents.

He'd taken the only surviving Barrigator and ran, hoping that nobody would spot him. Unfortunately, they did. Now he was running for his life. His only hope was that he could reach the river. While it may be slow and clumsy on land, the Barrigator was fast and agile in the water. He knew that the Zoids following him weren't adapted for water use and were unlikely to follow him in there.

The jungle abruptly stopped, giving way to the wide, slow expanse of the Georges River. The Barrigator slid out of the jungle and into the water, almost completely vanishing in the murky brown river. Behind it, a Deadborder and Darkhorn emerged from the jungle, firing their cannons into the water.

Semprini sighed in relief as the Barrigator slipped under. He'd managed to elude their attackers. Now that he was in the river, it was very unlikely that they could follow him. It'd be a long, long trek to the nearest A-X base, but it needed to be done. Someone needed to be told about the attack on this supposedly secret base.

The Barrigator's sensor's beeped, warning him of an enemy approaching. He checked the scanners. Three opponents were approaching form dead ahead, and closing fast. From their position, they had to be in the river. An underwater explosion rocked the Zoid, throwing him around the cockpit. A second one struck closer, setting off alarms inside the cockpit. Panicking, he ordered the Barrigator to surface. No way was he going to die a watery death.

As the Zoid surfaced, he saw the source of the attack. A pair of Heldigunners were surfacing ahead of him, while a third one was already part surfaced, a massive back-mounted cannon clearly visible. The lead pair fired their cluster cannons, striking the Barragator several times. The crocodile Zoid roared in pain with the hits, before crashing back into the water and sinking slowly to the bottom of the river.

-----


	29. Reality Sucks

Lanard

The Wastelands

1100 Hours

Tape transcript ADSL0615

SCENE: Rather run-down back room in local hotel. SANDRA is present, sitting at the only table. A beer bottle is on the table. The light from the shuttered windows falls across her face in a moderately dramatic way. Despite the heat, she is wearing a black leather longcoat. Larry seyz: Intersperse with pop-ups of Sandra in action for the final version. Maybe do a "grainy" take to give it a military interrogation look, also if we blur her a bit she may look more attractive.

REG: So, Sandra, how long have you been a mercenary here in the Wastelands?

SANDRA: About eighteen months, more or less. Probably closer to two years now. Frell it, I've lost count already.

REG: And what did you do before that?

SANDRA: Police. I was in... pause a police force. She sips the beer I left due to injuries sustained in a raid that went wrong. Rubs under her eyepatch

REG: So why did you decide to become a mercenary?

SANDRA: Lack of usable skills. Ex-cops are rarely good for much except private security work and fighting. With one eye and a bad shooting arm, I was no good for even that. Nobody would take me. So I became self employed. In retrospect, I'm sure I could have thought of something else to do.

REG: Like?

SANDRA: Private detective maybe. Or a sanitation engineer. Either way, I couldn't be too much more tooled up then I am today. Certainly I've got more scars now then I started out with, and that's hard. Gary note: See if we can get some footage of her in something sleeveless. show her scars

REG: So moving on, how long have you worked with the others?

SANDRA: Rick and Vic? About seven or eight months now. I was a solo act before that.

REG: So why change the way you work?

SANDRA: I figured that if there were three of us, the other two would absorb some of the fire that normally would go for me.

REG: So how did you end up working with them?

SANDRA: You know what? I'm not sure either. If I recall correctly, I met Rick who was already working with Vic. Or something to that effect. Anyways, we ended up as a group, somehow. She sips her beer

REG: And with you in charge.

SANDRA: Yeah, I suppose you could call it that. I lead by the simple expedient of shouting loudly at the other two and hoping they'll listen to me. Fortunately, they usually do. I guess the fact that I've got the biggest Zoid and a shield also helps.

REG: And how would you describe they way you fight?

SANDRA: Headstrong, I think. Because of Spud's rather mediocre ranged weapons, and the fact that I hate to use missiles as they cost money to replace, I tend to charge into the middle of things, shield leading. Rick's Woof is configured for long-range fire and Vic's got a Gunsniper, so generally they provide support fire for me while I'm throwing myself at whatever poor stupid tools get in my way. Larry note: Put in some footage form their fights here, specifically Sandra leaping on opponents... maybe thwacking that Gun Tiger form yesterday

REG: Spud... Your Shield Liger?

SANDRA: Yeah... I don't know why I call him Spud. He deserves better. Heck, he's one of the few things in my life that hasn't run out on me, left me, dumped me for something younger or up and died on me. I don't know why I treat him so badly some days.

REG: And where did you get the Liger from? I noticed it's a newer production model Larry note: Get some close-up shots of the Liger to use here but he's also rather worn looking.

SANDRA: ...no comment.

REG: And how would you describe your relationship with the other members of the team?

SANDRA: Well, Rick's okay. He's a bit of a moron and certainly needs to think before he acts, but he's also a great guy. I like him.

REG: And Vic?

SANDRA: ...no comment.

-----

Larry had made some calls and talked to people who knew people who knew people. The end result was that the prisoners form yesterday were being detained in the closest thing Lanard had to a lock-up before somebody came along to collect them. Sandra was privately hoping for a decent reward for this, but the little voice inside her head that kept her feet on the ground told her that the best she would get was a good handshake and a "Jolly good show."

The three of them were walking around Lanard being followed by the documentary crew. Larry had decided that he needed some 'atmosphere' shots of them in their 'native surroundings.' Reg on the other hand had sulked at the fringes of the group. Sandra was coming to the conclusion that the two were vying for control of the project. Reg probably wanted a serious documentary, while Larry wanted, well, she wasn't sure, but she suspected that he was hoping that she and Vic would get undressed first.

So they were currently strolling down Lanard's main street being followed by the camera monkey. It was a blisteringly hot day, the sun beating mercilessly down on them. Only they were outside. Everyone else had more sense. Still, the money was good. Sandra inwardly suspected that this would become her mantra throughout. They're telling you how to do your job for the benefit of the camera but still, the money was good. You're going to be humiliated on national television but still, the money was good.

A shadow fell over the group as a Zoid rolled into the town, stopping in front of them. At first it appeared to be a Serpent, something Sandra had hoped she wouldn't see again. Then she realised that there was something else. Its tail was attached to a second serpent body, which mounted a second cockpit, some boosters and more weapons.

"Darthed." Sandra said.

"You don't think it's..." Rick began.

"Oh dear Tomy, no." Sandra muttered. "Not now. Not like this."

"What's going on?" Reg said, running up next to them. "Is it going to attack us or what?"

Before anyone could reply, the cockpit in the Serpent's head opened. A man stepped out of it, standing dramatically on the edge of the cockpit, his long black cloak billowing in the wind that seemed to arrive with him.

"Help me." Sandra muttered.

"At last, I've found you again, Rick!" He shouted. "I have come for my revenge!"

"Oh, Hi Pants!" Rick said, waving back. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Pants?" Reg asked.

"Darth Pants. Rick's archenemy, ort at least in his head." Sandra replied.

"Less powerful, Eight-minus" Vic added.

"Silence! Rick, for what you did, I will-" He paused. "Is that a camera?"

"Yep. We're on TV." Rick replied.

"Live?"

"Well, no." Reg admitted. "My name's Reg Moore. I'm here from SBS making a documentary on Wastelands Mercenaries."

"Hang on, hang on a sec!" He said and jumped back into the Serpent's cockpit. The Zoid backed up the street to the point where it was no longer looming over them.

"What is he doing?" Jerry asked.

"I don't know, but keep taping." Larry replied. "This is good stuff. Great stuff. It's deep. It's edgy. It's cutting edge."

"Its pants" Vic added.

The Darthed Zoid rolled back up the street. Its cockpit opened, its pilot climbing out again. "Cower in fear, brief mortals!" He shouted. "Cower before your destroyer!"

"Oh hi, Pants." Rick said. "Again."

"Rick!" He shouted. "I have come for my vengeance on you! Again!"

"I kinda guessed that." Rick said. "So you want to fight it out, Zoid to Zoid?"

"Well... um, yes." Pants said. "I, um, want to do that."

"Cool beans." Rick replied. "There's a depression just outside the town so we can use that as an arena of sorts. And I'll bring the camera guys as well. They might want to see this."

"Well, yes. That's good." Pants said.

"So, say, see you in two hours?" Rick replied. "I'd make it one, only I haven't had lunch yet."

Pants paused, clearly at a loss for what to do here. "Yes, I, um, guess we can do that."

"Great!" Rick said. "See you then!" He turned around to face everyone else. "Okay, guys, I'm going to get you some great stuff!"

"A duel to the death for vengeance with a Darth!" Larry said. "This will be great stuff."

Vic shook her head. "It'll be pants. Totally pants."

-----

Tape transcript ADSL0616

SCENE: Rather run-down back room in local hotel as before. RICK is present, sitting at the only table. A soft drink bottle is on the table. The shutters are half open, allowing for more light to enter the room. Larry seyz: Once again, intersperse with pop-ups of Rick in action from our tapings. Maybe not as "harsh" on the graininess as Sandra

REG: So, Rick, how long have you been a mercenary here in the Wastelands?

RICK: About six or seven months now. Actually, it may be closer to eight now that I think about it.

REG: And what did you do before that?

RICK: I worked for a comic company for a couple of years as an artist/writer/creator. In essence, I created my own books, then wrote and drew them. Unfortunately, the company's editors were all idiots and as I was one of the hardest working people there, I was made redundant. I think I was making everyone else look bad. Reg says: Put some of his works here in pop-ups, preferably spandex-clad women

REG: So why did you decide to become a mercenary?

RICK: Well, I always liked Zoids. After my art, they were the second biggest thing in my life. I wanted to be a Zoid pilot. But i didn't want the military lifestyle, so I compromised. Besides, it allowed me to do something I really wanted to do.

REG: Which was?

RICK: I had an idea for a comic based around a group of Zoid pilots. However, instead of the usual tales of heroic combat and glorious victories, I wanted a gritty, deep, moving war story. What I'm doing here is getting inspiration to write this work. I want to show the lives of real people, and I'm going to do it by documenting what I see and go though out here.

REG: So moving on, how long have you worked with the others?

RICK: About seven or eight months. Basically, all the time I've been doing this.

REG: So why did you decide to work with them rather then on your own?

RICK: I felt that my comic would work better if it was about a small, tightly-knit group, rather then an individual. Additionally, working with others would allow me to get different perspectives on the same situation. That and a simple matter of survival; a loner won't last anywhere near as long as a group.

REG: So how did you end up working with Sandra and Vic?

RICK: I'm not sure really. As far as I remember, I met Sandra who was already working with Vic, or something like that. All I know is that Sandra, Vic and i were working together as a group, and I was alone before that.

REG: So Sandra's the leader of your team, but were do you fit in?

RICK: I don't think we've got a structure as such. Sandra shouts as us and we sometimes listen. Alternatively Vic or I may come up with something. That's really the limit of it for planning.

REG: And how would you describe they way you fight?

RICK: Hard to say. I run around a lot and I shoot things. Um, yeah... I dunno. I don't close in to use hand to hand.. or I suppose tooth to claw attacks that often. I generally find my big guns are enough to deal with most threats. Sometimes I act as a mobile support unit; a go-between from Sandra's close-combat fighting and Vic's long-range sniping. Gary again: Pop-ups of him in action

REG: You call your Zoid "Woof" I noticed. Any reason?

RICK: It's just a cute name for him. He's a Command Wolf, which became a Command Woof and then just a Woof. Don't know why.

REG: So where did you get it from? I notice it's a new model.

RICK: Bought legally at a store. Larry says: Shots of the wolf

REG: And how would you describe your relationships with the other members of your team?

RICK: Sandra's great. She acts all mean and hostile to everyone, but deep down you can tell she cares. Despite her men exterior, she's a nice enough person.

REG: And Vic?

RICK: ...She's a great source of material. Larry idea: Get as many group shots of the three of them not fighting, just doing stuff. Use here

REG: Moving on, this Darth Pants. Can you explain what this rivalry is about? Larry says: Throw in some shots of Pants here

RICK: Pants and I went to the same high school. There was a girl in our class, Christine Sanders. She and I went out for a little bit, but she never went out with Pants. That's about it, really.

REG: I see. And how do you fell about him?

RICK: Hey, it doesn't bother me that much. Its not like he's actually dangerous or anything.

-----

John Shepherd and Taro Watanabe walked into the throne room, where supreme commander Ebonflak was sitting on his ornate throne. "Well?" He asked, clearly not impressed with being interrupted by them.

"Forgive the interruption, Lord Ebonflak." John began. "But I bring grave news."

"Do explain yourself" He said.

"It appears that our Georges River base in the Raycliffe confederacy has been destroyed by an unknown force. We can only presume that it was UZN troops." He began. "However, what is more distressing is the fact that this is a brand new base, only built in the last few months. How could they have located it so quickly?"

"It is obvious how this tragedy could have occurred." He said, standing. "Clearly, some impudent traitor from within our own organisation has informed the ignorant masses of the outside world of the location of this base!"

"Forgive me, commander." Taro said, bowing. "But who would dare to betray us like that?"

"It is probably some miscreant left over from Desmond's decadent and corrupt reign over this great and glorious organisation." He said. "Such treachery can not go unpunished. You two and Captain D'Aleverra are to round up everyone who served under Desmond and knew of that base and have them detained. Once we have them, we will question them to determine which of them would dare betray us."

"Hail Ebonflak!" They both saluted.

"On the topic of traitors," John said, cautiously speaking out of turn. "What are you doing about that camera crew that may have access to Wolffman and his group?"

"They are being dealt with as we speak. Agents Jessica and Monica, my two best assassins, are on the trail of these ignorant outsiders right now. it is only a matter of time before they are located and bought to us."

"Yes, commander." The pair of them left. Once they were out of the rooms and the doors securely closed behind them did either of them speak.

"He's relying on those two to track them down?" Taro said. "Isn't that a bit risky?"

"Yes, Taro. Yes it is." John replied. "I think its time we intervened to bring this matter to a successful conclusion for all of us."

-----

The pair of Zeekdobers marked across the desert, Jessica's off-key wailing signaling their presence to anyone within earshot.

"Gonna destroy, gonna maim, gonna torch, gonna break!" She shouted out, Menchi's howls punctuating her words. "Gonna kill al the in-fi-del-el-el-el-els! Yeah!"

"Excuse me, Senior." Moncia interrupted her, her weak monotone contrasting to Jessica's enthusiastic wailing. "But may I ask what plan you have devised to locate this camera crew and bring them back to lord Ebonflak?"

Menchi stopped dead in the desert, frozen in place. "Yes, well, a plan, Well..." Jessica stammered out. "I had one, but I... I'd be interested to hear what you have to say, Junior agent Monica!" She recovered quickly. "Yeah, that'll fool her." She added under her breath.

"Well, I was thinking that we should go back to the site of yesterday's battle and then, from there, track the camera crew back to their base of operations, which is most likely the nearest town." She said. "Judging form the location of the battle, I'd say they were likely in Lanard, a small failing mining community."

"What a brilliant plan, Monica!" She shouted. "It is so brilliant because..." she trailed off. "Because it was exactly the same plan that I had thought of myself! You'll make an excellent field agent yet, Junior Agent Monica!"

"Thank you, Senior." She said.

"Now, off to the battlefield!" She shouted. "Forward, Menchi! Let us seek out and destroy the infidels wherever they may be located!" The Zeekdober set off across the desert, leaving Monica's own Zoid standing there. "Come on, Monica!" She shouted. "You don't want those ignorant masses to get away from us, do you?"

"Forgive my impudent interruption, senior." Monica replied. "But wasn't the battlefield the other way?"

The Zeekdober froze in place. "Eeeep!" She replied. "Yes, well... Um... Good! Excellent work, Monica! You have passed the... uhh... the basic wilderness navigation test!" The Zeekdober turned around and walked back past Monica's own Zoid. "Now on to punish the ignorant masses for their impudence!"

"I thought that was the case, Senior." Monica quietly replied as she fell in behind Jessica's Zoid.

-----

The depression that Rick had mentioned was a nice site for a battle. It was basically a flat area of hard-packed, dry soil surrounded by Rock walls. A pair of natural ramps allowed Zoids to enter and leave. It was a bit bigger then the Arena of Sport back in Bed Springs, but not quite as wide, and for the most part, clear of obstacles. Lacking transport resources of their own, Sandra and Vic had walked out there with their Zoids, following Rick's Command Wolf. With nothing else to do, Reg and the rest of the crew had followed them out in the Guysack.

"Right guys." Larry began. "I want this fight covered comprehensively. We could do a whole episode on this. The drama, the pathos, the tension. One angry man's quest for vengeance, and another's quest to clear his name."

"But Rick isn't even taking it seriously." Reg protested. "He's only fighting because Pants is going to keep bothering him until he does."

"We can edit it later to make it work better." Larry replied. "This'll be good stuff, Reggie-Baby." Reg didn't reply. "We'll win an award for this. Mark my words."

They watched in silence as Rick's Command Wolf walked down into the arena. Across the side, the bizarre double serpent Zoid rolled in. The two Zoids starred at each other for a moment, neither pilot speaking. Finally, Pants broke the silence. "So what do you think of my latest ultimate creation, Rick?"

"It's... um... It's a pair of Serpent Zoids stuck together." Rick replied.

"You fool!" Pants shouted. "This is no ordinary pair of Serpents stuck together! This is the mighty Double Dragon! It has twice the power of any Serpent! This will be the machine that will put you into your grave!"

"Just wondering." Rick muttered.

"So are you ready to face me now?" He said, his voice filled with contempt.

"Why not?" Rick casually replied.

A pair of boosters on the Double Dragon's tail activated, shooting it forward, straight at Rick's Zoid, firing its weapons as it went. The Command Wolf leaped out of the way, landing nearby. The Double Dragon suddenly disengaged its boosters, slewing around clumsily to avoid hitting the rock wall behind it before boosting off again. The Command Wolf fired its back-mounted cannons, striking the Double Dragon on the connection between the two sections.

The result was dramatic, to say the least. The back section wrenched free, flipping over as it went. It flipped and rolled several times, sending components flying as it went, before finally crashing to a stop. The front section, deprived of its balance from the tail, wobbled uncertainly as it went, the pilot clearly struggling to keep it under control.

"Ouchu" Vic said. "But funny."

The Serpent tried to turn to face Rick's Zoid. Not balancing properly, it skidded and flipped up, balancing precariously on one wheel as it went. The Command Wolf fired again, the shots hitting the Serpent on its exposed underside. The Zoid flipped over onto one wheel and spun furiously in the dirt for a second, before stopping.

"Creative" Sandra said.

"Stupid." Vic added.

"That's it?" Larry shouted. "That's all? That's the fight to the finish between two bitter enemies?"

"Actually more like one bitter enemy and one guy who fights him out of some silly superhero code of responsibility or something." Sandra explained. "Pants is angry at Rick for no real reason. It'd be a worry if he was dangerous."

"So Rick is Pants' arch-enemy in head only?" Reg asked.

"Pretty much." Sandra said. "Pants blames him for... um, something. I forget. But whatever it was, Rick didn't do it."

"So he's just being stupid." Red finished. "Interesting."

"Pretty much" Sandra said. "He's just some dumb guy who thinks that because he's a Darth he can do whatever he wants. He's probably going to get himself killed that way."

"Darwininan Roadkill." Vic added, then sniggered as if to some private little joke.

"Hey boss!" Jerry interjected. "We all done here?"

"Yes." Gerry whimpered, his dreams clearly crushed. "This is a mess."

-----

Tape transcript ADSL0617

SCENE: Rather run-down back room in local hotel as before. DARTH PANTS is sitting at the table, his hood back. Windows are half open, spilling light across one side of his face. Larry seyz: Maybe grayscale this one, increase the contrast on him.

REG: So, Pants... may I call you Pants?

PANTS: Certainly. It is the only name I have now.

REG: Pants, how long have you been a Darth?

PANTS: From the moment I was born. With my first lungful of air I was a Darth. It is not something you become, but something you simply are. However, if you were asking 'how long have I called myself Darth pants, worn the signature cloak and been creating new Zoids' then the answer would be for about five years now.

REG: So how did you first, uh, become a Darth?

PANTS: I had always been fascinated with Zoids, I suppose. Many children are. But for the most part, all they can think of is wanting to ride in one and charge around the countryside engaging in heroic combat with one another. However, I was different. I wanted to know about them, to find out how they worked and what they could do. I suppose I first realised my abilities in high school. It was there that I began to experimentally merge Godos and Iguan components to see what would happen. At that moment, my first ultimate creation, the Black Zoid, was born.

REG: Your first ultimate creation?

PANTS: Oh, I have had many creations in my time, each one better then the last. The Munkytruk, an experimental hybrid of Hammer Rock and Tank Zoid was, for a while, my greatest creation, even surpassing the Black Zoid. Then I revitalised the Black Zoid, making it even more terrifyingly powerful then before. Then I created the Double Dragon, arguably my greatest creation yet.

REG: So what happened to the Munkytruk and Black Zoid?

PANTS Muttered: They were destroyed.

SANDRA walks behind pants and passes Reg a card. She also waves to the camera.

REG: So can you explain to us what this rivalry with Rick is all about?

PANTS: He sole my beloved Christine away from me. I have sworn that I will avenge myself upon him for what he did to me that fateful day. It was on that day that I began construction of the Black Zoid as my instrument of vengeance.

REG Picks up the card: Is it possible that Christine, um, left you for Rick because you were more interested in Zoids then in her?

PANTS: I... I never thought of that.

REG: Moving on, how would say you design you Zoids? Does a particular idea strike you to create each one or are they the result of meticulous planning?

PANTS: Fool, I do not design them. They design themselves. I look within each Zoid and see its unfulfilled true potential, the potential that is smothered by the conservative thinking of those who create them. The design of the new Zoid flows from the Zoid itself and plants itself into my head. I am merely the instrument of fulfilling that potential. I do not create, I nurture.

REG: So how do you see this potential?

PANTS: I cannot describe it to a mere mortal like you, but I will try. I think the best way to put it would be that I see a vision of the finished idea inside my head and then I work from there. Sometimes it is hard to see these visions. Often they come at periods of great physical stress or duress.

REG: Tell me... does your, ah, lair?

PANTS: Lair, yes that would be the appropriate word.

REG: Does your lair have a lot of heavy objects stored in high places?

PANTS: Why, yes, My tools, my design books, my logs, my bowling balls, my collection of antique anvils. Why do you ask?

REG: ...just wondering. And, uh, how would you describe the way you fight?

VIC walks past in the background

PANTS: It would be impossible to describe it. Each of my creations is a unique machine. Each one performs differently to the other. Comparing they way they fight would be impossible; it would be like comparing a Lightning Saix to a Cannon Tortoise, or a Hellrunner to a Giant Zrk, or a Wardick to a Raynos.

VIC: Wardick. Sniggers

REG: Now you've failed to wreak bloody vengeance on Rick twice now, correct?

PANTS: It is the third time we have fought, but only the second time that I have been trying to seek my vengeance upon him. I didn't realise that it was him the first time we clashed. Strangely ironic.

REG: So what are your plans for the future?

PANTS: I will return to my lair and begin anew. I will create a new ultimate Zoid and once more return to seek my vengeance on Rick.

-----

Like the last time Rick had battled (and beaten) Darth Pants, he felt in a festive mood. This was deemed as a reasonable excuse by everyone else to go out and get drunk. The three of them, with camera crew in tow, had descended on the local pub where they'd first met their new employers and proceeded to begin drinking. A lot. They figured that since there was only three of them versus the eight they had last time Rick fought Pants, everyone had to drink at least twice as much.

Jerry was obliged to keep dry so that he could film everything. Reg was obliged to keep dry so that he could ask questions and direct the camera. Larry was taking it as an opportunity to drink as much as possible and try to forget about the fiasco that he'd just seen. He could see it now. Our hero battles Evil Darth to the finish. A five-minute short, even with credits. He'd never live it down. Not that the others seemed to mind. They were all in a celebrating mood. He could swear that there was even a hint of smugness in Reg's voice.

Pants himself had left not too long after his interview. His Red Scavenger had collected the remains of the Double Dragon and vanished over the horizon. He'd muttered something about "revenge" and "more ultimate creations" as well as cleaning up his lair before he left.

"Here's to Rick!" Sandra shouted. "Two-time Darth slayer!" They all drank.

"Darth tipper" Vic added, quietly.

"You know what, Vic?" Rick said. "You are absolutely right. Twice I've fought him and twice I've ended up tipping him over onto his side. I'm sure that means something."

"...that he should pilot something with a lower center of gravity, maybe?" Sandra asked.

"Damn straight he should!" Rick said, and took another drink. "Course, now he'll come back to haunt us with a Darthed Hilderdoker or something."

"Hydocker." Vic said. "Splat."

"Exactly!" Rick added.

"So are you always this jovial after a victory?" Reg asked.

"Heck no." Sandra said. "Usually its just business for us, but this was something special." She took a sip. "Usually when we whack someone-"

"Like a Goomba" Vic added. "Goomba, goomba"

"-its just a business transaction." Sandra finished. "We don't do it out of any sense of malice or anger or hatred. Conversely, we don't do it because we're defending our homes or standing up for a cause."

"But when I fight Pants, it's because he's being a dumbarse." Rick finished. "In a way, I'm doing him a favour. Maybe if I whack him enough times, he'll give it up."

"Community Safety Beatdown." Vic said. "He's so civic-minded."

Rick glanced around, something immediately catching his eye. A shapely red-haired woman at the bar, wearing oh so tight and provocatively low-cut pants and with an elaborate rose and thorn pattern tattooed on her back. "Excuse me, guys." He said as he stood. "My turn to get the drinks."

"But I'm still going on this one." Sandra said.

"Storm Sworder." Vic muttered.

"Right." Sandra added. "Well, um, same again, Rick" She called out, even though he was halfway across the room.

Rick walked up to the bar next to the woman, and ordered a beer. Turning towards the woman, he decided to keep it simple. "Hi there." He began. "Haven't seen you around here before."

She turned to face him. "That's not surprising, Rick. I haven't been here before."

There was a click of recognition. Green eyes. Red hair. Shapes. "Rose? I mean, Captain O'Bannon?"

"Please." She said, taking Rick's hand. "It's just Rose for the moment." She said. "I'm kind of here incognito, if you understand what I mean."

"Uh, sure." He stammered out.

"Thanks." She said. "I'd also appreciate it if you didn't tell your friends that you saw me here. What I'm doing here is kind of undercover work."

"Wrstflx" He said. "Undercover." His mind didn't want to think about 'Rose' and 'undercover' together.

"Thanks, Rick." She said. "Maybe if I get a chance I can do that sketch session we wanted to do." She smiled and then leaned close to his ear, whispering into it. "I'm really looking forward to it."

"Right. Sketches. Sure." He said as she walked off, her hips wiggling as she went.

"Hey Rick!" Sandra shouted. 'When you're all done, where's my drink?!"

-----

Tape transcript ADSL0618

SCENE: Rather run-down back room in local hotel as before. VIC is sitting at the table, glaring straight at the camera. The shutters are part open, falling across her face, breaking it up into patches of "light" and "dark". Very nicely dramatic. Larry seyz: Intersperse with pop-ups of Vic in action like the others, especially the "sniper cam". I think go for a grainy grayscale here, give it a "low budget horror" look. Make it unsettling; that'll get us a lot of attention.

REG: So, Vic, how long have you been a mercenary here in the Wastelands?

VIC: Some time now. Since I died, certainly.

REG: You died?

VIC: It happens. Shrugs

REG: Right, well, and, uh, and what did you do before that?

VIC: Army. I shot things.

REG: So why did you decide to become a mercenary?

VIC: So I can shoot more things. Larry: See if she has a gun collection or something. Get her to show it off, stand with a few more outrageous items. That could be some great material.

REG: I see. So how long have you worked with the others?

VIC: Seven months. Eight maybe. Probably eight. Worked alone for a while. Only me to keep me company. Boring.

REG: So why change the way you work?

VIC: Bigger group, bigger jobs. More things to shoot. More chance of getting into trouble. More chance of getting selected to do a documentary.

REG: So how did you end up working with them?

VIC: Rick was working with me before Sandra met him. Sandra was working with me before Rick met her. At least that's what they claim.

REG: So who were you working with first?

VIC: All of the above. She grins

REG: And how would you describe they way you fight?

VIC: Usually I snipe. Hide on top of a hill or behind some rocks or something. Forms a "finger gun" with her hand Then I find a target and line him up. Points "finger gun at the camera." Then, when he least expects it... She grins. BANG! Deeeeeaaaaad. She sniggers, then laughs. 'course, I can't always do that. Sometimes I run in close, fight it out at close range. Lots of guns. Teeth, claws too. Messy. Larry seyz: Use the "tail-cam" shots here. they're good. Especially get one of her actually shooting a Zoid through the cam

REG: Rick and Sandra both have "pet" names for their Zoids. Do you?

VIC: No.

REG: Any reason?

VIC: It's just a weapon. My favorite weapon, but a weapon. I kill things with it.

REG: And where did you get it from? It looks new and it has an optional weapons pod. Larry: Get lots of shots of the GS. Point out how many guns it has

VIC: I look after it well. Extra guns good too.

REG: And have you, uh, piloted any other types of Zoid?

VIC: Let's see... Counts off her finger Strike Zilla. Yeah. And a screaming mad insane bloody red mutant Deathsaurer. That was fun. I think I died again. Larry: Can we get Deathsaurer footage here? Gotta be something in the archives we can dress up

REG: I see.

VIC: But he and I don't talk any more.

REG: Right. How would you describe your relationship with the other members of your team?

VIC: They're fun. They get into trouble a lot. Trouble's good. That means more things to shoot. I nearly burninated Rick once, but we got over it. All good now. She grins again

REG: ...I see.

-----

"You know, I don't think she blinked once." Jerry said. He was going over the tape from Vic's interview. "Those eyes are definitely scary."

"She mentioned trying to kill Rick with a Deathsaurer." Reg muttered. "Did either Sandra or Rick ever mention anything about a Deathsaurer in their interviews?"

"Nope." Jerry replied. "We'd have remembered if they had. Maybe she's just being strange. Heck, I think she's being strange all the time."

"Still, it's interesting." He said. "Maybe there's something they're not telling us."

"If she got in a Deathsaurer, I wouldn't want to think about it either" Jerry replied.

Larry stumbled into the room, looking a little worse for wear. "So how's it all going?" he slurred out. He was definitely drunk. "You done with the interviews?"

"Pretty much." Reg said. "We might get some additional material later, but that's probably it for the time being."

"Well that's good." Larry continued. "'cos I don't think I could stand being around them for too much longer."

Reg rolled his eyes. He'd figured this would happen sooner or later. He just hadn't expected it on the second day.

-----

Scroch Mountain

Krup Confederacy

1745 hours

Captain Cleo Collins had long ago realised the biggest advantage of being an A-X sub-commander. As long as she ran the base, followed orders and didn't do anything to upset the higher-ups, you could pretty much do whatever you wanted. Right now she was lounging on a fur-covered couch, being fanned by a pair of bare-chested young male pilots while idly eating grapes. Her base was her own little empire, and she was its queen. She had been enjoying life since Desmond's untimely demise. Her base was being largely overlooked, which meant she was free to do what she wanted.

A junior officer, one of her aides entered her command room and kneeled before her. She sighed, bored of having to deal with the outside world. "Yes, Greenie?" She said, clearly not interested in what she had to say. She'd given just about everyone on the base a "pet" name, as it saved her the effort of giving them, real names. She also got a small chuckle out of watching them refer to each other by those names.

"Sorry to interrupt you, captain." Lieutenant "Greenie" Tyler began. "But Sergeant Lemon's patrol hasn't reported in."

"How distressing." She replied. "Try to contact them again, I suppose." Before Greenie could reply, the base was rocked by an explosion. Cleo leaped to her feet, shouting. "What was that?" She demanded.

Another officer ran into the room and knelt before her. "Forgive the interruption, but we are under attack. A pair of Zoids are shelling the base."

"What?" She shouted. "How could they have located us?" The base was inside the side of a mountain, hidden form the rest of the world. Nobody outside of A-X could have known where it was.

"Captain?" Greenie began. "Is it possible that these attackers also destroyed Sergeant Lemmon's squad?"

"Of course it is, you dolt!" She shouted. "Greenie, Tealeaves, get your Zoids. We're going out there to get rid of them."

She stomped down to the Zoid hanger where her troops were already boarding their machines. Her unit had a dozen Dimantis, less the four that were presumed lost with Sergeant Lemon's squad. They also had a pair of Tank Zoids, and her own personal machine. It was a Bearfighter that had been customised to suit her personal needs. In place of the light beam cannons on the back, it carried a trio of heavy, multi-purpose cannons, essentially enlarged versions of the impact cannons found on Zoids like the Saber Tiger and Shield Liger. Painted a daring green and gold colour scheme, it could only be described as 'striking.'

Cleo limbed into the cockpit, while Tealeaves and Greenie climbed into their Tanks. "Open the doors, you worthless dogs!" She shouted. 'I will personally lead the counterattack!" The bay door opened, revealing the flat plain outside, and the mountains and forest around it. She couldn't see the two attackers. but she had a pretty good idea where they were. "Move out! Locate and destroy them! Leave nothing standing!"

The Bearfighter and the Tanks had barely left the bay when the ground in front of them erupted. A pair of black Heldigunners burst out form the ground, their green eyes and cores glowing ominously in the twilight. A Darkhorn stepped out from the forest, glaring menacingly at them.

"D-don't j-just stand there you idiots!" She shouted. "Do something!"

Before they could react, the Heldigunners and Darkhorn opened fire on the crowded bay. The Bearfighter crashed to the ground, one of its forelegs shot out form underneath it. Cleo was shaken as the Zoid crashed down, smashing her around the cockpit. Checking her systems, she could see that the Zoid was done for. Shaking her head to clear it, she opened the Zoid's cockpit. She could see Tealeaves' Tank Zoid lying crippled next to her, one of its wheels and one of the wings shot off.

A Deadborder and a Heldigunner carrying a large cannon emerged from the trees, while the others continued to fire into the bay. Cleo could see the way this was going, but something bothered her. "How did they find us?" She muttered.

-----


	30. Vox Pops

Red Hills

The Wastelands

1500 hours

"That tool's getting away!" Sandra shouted as her Shield Liger opened up with its back-mounted beam cannons. The beams went wide of the fleeing Rev Rapter she was aiming for, which ducked behind an outcropping. "You tool!"

"I got him! I got him!" Rick replied, shouting as his Command Wolf ran at the Rapter, firing its cannons. The Rev Rapter saw him coming and turned to run again, only to be hit in the leg as it fled. The small Zoid's leg snapped in half, sending it crashing to the ground.

"Well that looks like all of them." Sandra said. "All four."

"Four?" Rick said. "I thought there was five of them."

Another Rev Rapter, seeing its opportunity, dashed out from behind a hill, desperate to get away. Looking ahead, Rick could see only a single obstacle to its progress - the Guysack. "He's going for the Doco crew!" He shouted as he opened fire, his shots missing the mark.

"Tool!" Sandra swore. The Camera Guysack was unarmed and relatively slow moving. Even a Rev Rapter could take it down with ease. "We gotta stop that guy!" The fact that getting all five of them was a cash bonus helped.

Vic's Gunsniper jumped down from a nearby hill, landing right in front of the fleeing Rev Rapter. The enemy Zoid stopped, snarling and hissing at Vic's Gunsniper, which stood its ground, growling back. Seeing its chance, the Rev Rapter ran at the Gunsniper and leaped into the air, aiming to come down with its claws. Before it could strike, Vic opened fire with her various back-mounted weapons, literally swatting the Rev Rapter out of the air. It crashed to the ground, a smoking wreck.

"Nice save Vic" Rick said, and whistled.

"Could have left more for salvage." Sandra muttered. "And probably not used as much ammo."

"And that's a wrap!" Larry shouted form the Guysack. "Nice work there, guys!"

"You were terrified." Jerry said. "Admit it."

"I knew exactly what was going on, thank you." Larry said. "I was confident in their ability to handle the situation."

"Check his pants." Vic said as her Gunsniper poked the Rev Rapter's smoking wreck with its toe claw. "Hey. You awake?"

"Did you get all that on film?" Reg asked. "I think that bit with the Rev Rapter charging at us only to be cut off like that was exceptional."

"Got it all, boss." Jerry said. "And I'd love to know how you can be so calm. If he'd tried to stick us, your seat would have been first to go."

"You guys all okay?" Sandra said as the Liger walked up to the Guysack. "No flying debris in the face or similar?"

Larry checked the Guysack's status monitors. They all looked good to him. "We're all good here." He replied.

"Sorry 'bout that one." Snadra admitted. "He kinda got away from us in the confusion."

'Confusion' what the important word here. Sandra and crew had been hired to protect a cargo convoy along a trouble-prone route. They'd been following it at a distance, waiting for any attackers to come. When they had came, they'd moved in to take them out. Or at least, that was the plan. The pack of Rev Rapters that had attacked had decided to scatter wildly after putting up only a token fight. In order to proven them from doubling back to attack the convoy while they were otherwise distracted, Sandra, Rick and Vic had spent several merry minutes chasing around the clustered hills that dominated the landscape.

Larry had, for some reason, loved it. He had been burbling in buzzwords about it being 'cutting edge' and 'daring' cinematography, especially watching the chaos of the chase from the Zoid-mounted cameras. In the last few days since Rick's fight with Pants, he'd been rather sullen and depressed, leaving Jerry and Reg to do most of the work. Now it seemed like he was back to his normal self.

So in other words, Sandra wanted to hit him.

-----

Like their previous employer, and as Reg suspected, most others, Sandra's latest cliuent had requested anonymity. Thus he, Larry and Jerry were left to wander around the town. Jerry was taking this as an opportunity to shoot some "atmospheric" footage (as Larry put it) of the town. Larry, in the meantime, was rambling in his usual kind of way. "This is great." He said. "Hip. Edgy. Daring. Great stuff." He grinned and bounced his eyebrows. "This morning's battle was a good one, Reggie-Baby."

"Good?" He asked.

"Great. Chaotic. Very jumpy, rushed and confused looking The audience love that kind of cuttin-edge to the extreme stuff, you know." He said. "We're going to be great, Reggie-baby. Great."

"Whatever." He said.

"Actually, I was thinking we could expand the project a bit." He continued, clearly ignoring Reg. "Maybe cut some interviews with other mercenaries, get some different perspectives ion things... all that sorta stuff." He continued, "Maybe we can find some Storm Sworder pilots to interview, riiiiight?"

"Uh, sure." He said.

-----

After meeting their contact and getting their pay, Sandra, Rick and Vic had settled back in for a late-afternoon drink. They'd briefly considered telling the doco crew that they could come in and get out of the blazing sun, but it had escaped them. Probably on purpose.

"Think they'll be okay on their own?" Rick asked.

"Them?" Sandra replied. 'I'm more worried about any innocent bystanders they may mug and shove a camera in the face of to get some sort of 'man on the street' perspective."

"Somebody's bitter." Rick said.

"More so then usual." Vic added.

"I swear, if he says one more buzzword I'll shove something right up his date. Possibly his Guysack." She muttered.

"Sandra, you feel that way about everyone." Rick replied.

"Oh yeah." She muttered.

"Excuse me." They looked up. A tall man was standing over them. He had short brown hair and wore sunglasses and anonymous dessert fatigues. "Sandra Blackmore?"

"Yeah." She said. "And you are?"

"Nick Peterson, UZN intelligence." He replied. "I believe you contacted us regarding a few matters."

"Ah, yeah." Sandra said. "Rick, Vic, could you excuse us for a few minutes?"

"Sure thing, Boss." Rick said as he got up. "I'm sure we can find some way to amuse ourselves."

Sandra glared at Vic for a second. "And don't use this as an excuse to go out and break things."

"Us?" Vic said, surprised. "Never." The pair of them walked off in different directions, leaving Sandra alone with Nick, who took Rick's seat.

"Yeah, I asked after you." She said "Tell me what you want to know, and I'll tell you what I can."

"I understand that you recently took a number of A-X pilots prisoner." He said. "I'd like to know the circumstances that they were captured in."

"Well, a week ago, my associates and I were hired to deal with a group of raiders who had been hassling local desert communities." She began. "We located them while they were prepping for another attack. It was only after we took them out that we realised that they were A-X pilots."

"A-X raiding small desert communities doesn't seem to fit in with their usual modus operandi." He replied. "So was there anything unusual about this group?"

"Where to begin?" Sandra said. "Their leader was piloting a Darthed Command Wolf, but wasn't actually a Darth himself. The rest of them had attack Zoids; Dimantises, Diloforces and a Guntiger. There were, however, a pair of Zeekdobers who were watching the battle but didn't intervene in it. We only discovered after the fact that they were actuality A-X Zoids themselves."

"Interesting." He said. "Are you aware of what's been happening with A-X recently?" He asked.

"No." Sandra lied. She knew some of what had happened, but explaining would involve a lot of unpleasant questions.

"We think there may have been a change in leadership." He replied. "About a month to six weeks ago, their leader, a man named Desmond, was ousted in some sort of coup." He began. "Since then, there has been a lot of unusual activity."

"Really." Sandra said. She knew about Desmond, but she didn't want to say that. It would lead to some very uncomfortable explanations.

"Additionally, several of their bases have been attacked in the last few weeks." He continued. "We've heard of attacks in the wastelands and the UZN. We suspect there may have even been attacks inside the empire. We know that it wasn't us, so that's left us to wonder who it could be then."

"I.... I can't help you there." Sandra replied.

"Thanks for the tip-off about those men, however." He said. "I'm sure that they'll prove to be more useful alive then dead."

"Are you going to pick them up now?" She asked.

"I was going to wait until morning. I figure it's probably a bit late to be straining the brains of the local law enforcement."

Sandra smirked. "And you don't even know them yet."

-----

Rick had left Sandra to her meeting, realising that his presence wasn't wanted in security-minded situation like this. Instead, he'd wandered over to the bar to get a drink and check out the local scenery. "Hi Rick." came a woman's voice form behind him. He turned around to see the source of the voice. It was Rose, standing at the bar next to him. She smiled. "How have you been?"

"Uh... Rose..." He noticed the rose tattoo on her abdomen that matched the one on the back. He also noted the stem that vanished off down... best not to think about it, he thought. "F-fine. Good. You?"

She smiled. "Busy. You?"

"Yeah, very busy." He said. "We're, uh, working with a Documentary crew while also doing all our usual kinda stuff. They're filming us so they can make a doco on wastelands mercenaries and the like. Its... interesting. They especially seem to like it when we're doing jobs; they get to watch us in action and get footage of us in battle."

"So how many battles have you been in since you've been working with these guys?" She asked.

"Three." Rick replied. "Well, two for the group and another one for me. I had a run-in with my arch-enemy Darth Pants, which resulted in another fight. But that was over quick."

"You have an arch enemy?" She seemed surprised.

"Well, sort of. He thinks he's my arch enemy at least." He smiled. "He's not really that dangerous."

"And the others?"

"We knocked over a bunch of convoy raiders in Rev Rapters this morning." He said. "And a week ago we beat up a bunch of those A-X guys, like the ones we met in..." He trailed off. "Where you were." He finished.

"Did you get any of the A-X pilots?" She asked. "Only that the ones we faced had a tendency to fight to the death."

"Yeah, most of them survived." Rick said. "Sandra had them hauled back here. They're in the local lock-up now. Apparently Sandra's making arrangements for someone to pick them up or something to that effect." He shrugged. "I think she was going to hand them over to the UZN or something like that."

"Good plan there. The locals would probably just lynch them otherwise." She said. "They must know something useful about A-X."

"That's what Sandra thought." Rick replied.

"Cool." Rose replied. "Anyways, I need to be off." She leaned a little closer to Rick. "But I should be free to do that studio session for you later." She smiled and walked off, leaving him gaping.

-----

The two Zeekdobers peered out over the battlefield, surveying the landscape. Save for a few stray Rev Rapter parts, there was nothing here to indicate the recent conflict.

"Aaaagh!" Jessica wailed. "It appears that once again we have by some strange series of events arrived at this battlefield far, far too late to apprehend the ignorant masses who had managed to capture us on tape and thus risk exposing our great and glorious lord Ebonflak's cause to the unwashed rabble of the outside world! Whatever are we to do?"

Despite Jessica's best efforts, they'd (somehow) managed to locate Lanard. Unfortunately for them, they'd discovered that their targets had left town not too long after they'd arrived. It had then been another long and complicated search to locate where they had gotten to.

"Thank you for that exposition, senior." Monica replied. "However, I think I may have located a vital clue to the whereabouts of our targets." Her Zeekdober, Inanoube, had its head down to the ground, as if it were sniffing like a real dog.

"Oh! Let us see what this vital clue is!" Her Zeekdober ran over to join Monica's, kicking up a huge cloud of sand as it went.

"Look here senior." Inanoube was pointing its nose at a set of regular small indentations in the sand. "It appears to be a trail left behind by the target."

"Ahah! Guytrack sacks! Sneaky sandy scorpy swiftly steals silently to safety! Excellent work agent Monica in locating this vital clue to our target's whereabouts!" She shouted enthusiastically. "Now onwards for victory for our great and glorious lord Ebonflak!" Menchi strode off across the dunes, following the trail.

"Why thank you, senior." Monica quietly replied as she followed.

-----

"HAIL EBONFLAK!"

Xbonvir looked down from his throne to see captain D'Allevera standing before him, wearing his aqua-and-gold uniform and saluting enthusiastically.

"Indeed." He replied.

"I have grave news for you, lord Ebonflak." He said. "It appears that our base on Scroch mountain in the Krup confederacy has been attacked and destroyed by an unknown party. At this stage, it appears that everyone present at the base was either killed in action or taken prisoner by the enemy."

"I see." Ebonflak said. "It appears that our mysterious traitor has struck again."

"So it would seem, sir."

"Very well then. Continue your investigation into the matter, captain."

"Yes, Lord Ebonflak sir." He said.

"Oh and captain?"

"Yes."

Ebonflak glared at him from his throne. "Where are Major Shepherd and Captain Watanabe?"

Vincent glanced to either side of him and then back at Ebonflak. "Well, it, uh, it would appear that they are absent. I, um, was working on the investigation and had assumed that they were also working on it as well."

"I see." His eyes narrowed. "Very well then. Continue with your investigation, Captain. I will deal with them later."

"Yes commander." He left the room as quickly as he could while still appearing to be polite. Something inside him said that this was all about to go horribly wrong.

-----

Captain O'Grady, the nominal head of Lanard's town militia that handled all defence and law-enforcement needs, was not a complicated man. He preferred it if everything was simple and straightforward. He didn't ask complicated questions as they usually resulted in complicated answers. And since nobody ever attacked Lanard (as it had little worth attacking it for) and most of the mercenaries in town were smart enough not to cause too much trouble, it made his job easy.

So when a week ago a bunch of Mercenaries had walked in to his office and said that they wanted to lock up some captured pilots, he hadn't asked. And when they'd come back the next day and said that someone would be coming around to pick them up in a week or so, he hadn't asked. That kept things simple.

The sound of the door creaking open caught his attention, as did the shape of the person entering, momentarily silhouetted against the setting sun outside. It was a tall, nicely shaped woman with firey red hair, wearing a black jacket and pants and a somewhat unbuttoned shirt, topped off with sunglasses. "Um..." His brain sizzled. "Can I help you?"

She briefly flashed a badge. "Amelia Snow, UZN Intelligence." She replied. "I'm here to pick up the prisoners you've been keeping for me."

"Prisoners?" He said. "Oh yes, prisoners. Sure. Right away." His usual 'don't ask questions' policy made sense here. She was here to get the prisoners. It made sense. Besides, his mind was thinking about other things. "I'll go and get them."

"Thanks for that." She said, and smiled.

"Glad I could help, ma'am." He replied. He got up and walked into the squad room where his men were meant to wait while on duty. In theory, at least. In practice, there was usually only a couple of people there. "Tom, Billy and Hiro!" he shouted at the three troopers waiting. Damn, he needed to get more reliable recruits. "Get in here!" The three of them stumbled out of the room.

"Thanks for that." Amelia said. "I just need the three of you to load those prisoners into my van. It's the grey one outside."

"You hear her!" O'Grady shouted. "Now!" The three of them all but stumbled over each other getting out of the room and going to the prisoners. O'Grady looked at Amelia, who he could swear was smiling. "Sorry about that, miss." He apologised. "They're a little eager and..."

"Don't worry about it." She replied. "You've been a big help." She turned to stand directly in front of him. "Actually, can I ask one more favour form you?"

"Uh, certainly." he stammered out.

"This is a very important operation and naturally, I'm here incognito." She said. "I'd prefer it if you didn't tell anyone I was here."

"Of course, ma'am." He said.

"Thanks for that." She said. "You've been very, very helpful."

-----

As with previous documentary trips with Reg, Jerry didn't have the luxury of having a full video edit suite in the field with him. Instead, the plan was to just accumulate mountains of tape and then sort through them at the end of the trip. Of course, every now and then they'd go over their tapes from the day and see how some of them looked.

"So you want to go over that battle against the Rapters?" Jerry asked. "I got a lot of good stuff from all the different cams at once, and I haven't had a chance to go over them."

"If its okay with you, I'd like to go over those interview tapes we got this afternoon." Larry said. "I mane, we haven't had a good chance to look at them yet, and doing the edits for the fight scenes will take too long."

"You just want to oggle that Storm Sworder pilot gain." Reg muttered.

"Me?" Larry asked. "I'm just interested in examining the material."

Jerry sniggered. "Let's put it on. Might as well see what we've got."

He put this disc into the computer's drive. "I started out on a fresh disk this afternoon." Thumbing the remote, he span through a lot of their 'atmosphere' shots of the town, then stopped. On the screen was an attractive dark haired, green-eyed woman, wearing a form-fitting, strategically unzipped flightsuit. She was sitting at a table in the bar, the light form the window falling across her face and chest.

"This is good stuff. I, uh, just want to check it." Larry said, sitting closer to the computer.

"Yeah." Jerry said, moving in closer as well.

"Hit play at any time."

"Sure thing."

-----

Tape transcript ADSL0630

REG: Before we begin, can I just get your name.

WOMAN: Reven.

REG: And your surname?

REVEN: Not important.

REG: So how long have you been a mercenary, Reven?

REVEN: Three years now, more or less. She examines her hand

REG: And what did you do before that?

REVEN: Training. My father wanted me to become a great Zoid pilot. In his day, he was an ace Zoid pilot and he wanted me to be one too. Then high school before that.

REG: So why did you decide to become a mercenary?

REVEN: I don't like following orders. I prefer to be my own person, rather then somebody's subordinate. So I became a mercenary so I could do what i like without anyone pushing me around and telling me what to do. She points up

REG: Do you prefer to work alone or with a group?

REVEN: Group. Well, more to the point, a group with me in charge. In flight, if you have a wingman, you're far, far less vulnerable and more capable then you are alone.

REG: And you are in a group?

REVEN: There's only two of us, but I suppose you could call it that.

REG: So how did you end up working with your current partner?

REVEN: We met on a previous job with a previous group. That didn't quite work out, but we ended up working together anyway.

REG: What was that previous job?

REVEN: No comment.

REG: So what sort of Zoid do you pilot?

REVEN: Storm Sworder.

REG: Have you ever piloted any other types?

REVEN: A Zark and a Krark. I'd say the 'sworder is my favorite of them all, though. It's not as powerful as the Krark, but far faster and more agile. Besides, I like the shiny silver colour scheme.

REG: And where did you get the Storm Sworder from?

REVEN: I bought it legitimately. I traded in a Zark and a Serpent in for it, along with a good amount of cash. She points up

REG: And how would you describe they way you fight?

REVEN: I'll admit that I have a thing for showy or flashy moves. Because the Storm Sworder emphasises close combat, I'll use the wing blades as my primary weapons. I like to swoop down on my opponents for a fast running slice type of maneuver. It'll work well against both air and ground opponents, seeing as few Zoids can match my speed and agility.

REG: And how would you describe your relationship with the other members of the team?

REVEN: I've got only one other guy in my group. I like him. He's a great witless minion.

REG: Minion?

REVEN: He does what he's told and follows me around. That qualifies for minion in my book.

REG: Anything else you'd like to add?

REVEN: My face is up here. She points to her head

-----

"Heh... oops." Jerry muttered, his face red.

"Not to worry, Jerry-baby." Larry said, patting him on the back. "We'll cut that out of the broadcast version. Anyways, let's see the second one."

"Oh, you'll like this." Reg said. "it's different, certainly."

The screen jumped forward to another man sitting in the same seat. He was wearing a blue and black flightsuit, with a black helmet and a red bandanna covering his mouth and nose.

"Who is this guy?" Larry asked. "He'd skipped out on all the interviews after Reven's, probably to have a cold shower.

"He's good." Reg said. "Just what we need for your style of program."

-----

Tape transcript ADSL0630 (cotd)

REG: Before we begin, can I just get your name.

MAN: Z-One

REG: Can, I, uh, get your real name?

Z-ONE: No.

REG: Well... okay then. So how long have you been a mercenary?

Z-ONE: A while.

REG: And what did you do before that?

Z-ONE: Stuff.

REG: So why did you decide to become a mercenary?

Z-ONE: Money

REG: Do you prefer to work alone or with a group?

Z-ONE: Group.

REG: So how did you end up working with your current partner?

Z-ONE: We left the same group at the same time. I work for her now.

REG: What was that previous job?

Z-ONE: No comment.

REG: So what sort of Zoid do you pilot?

Z-ONE: Sinker.

REG: Have you ever piloted any other types?

Z-ONE: A Z-Ray.

REG: It's an unusual choice, piloting a semi-aquatic Zoid in the desert.

Z-ONE: I like Sinkers. Nothing wrong with that.

REG: Indeed, and, er, where did you get it from?

Z-ONE: No comment

REG: And how would you describe they way you fight?

Z-ONE: I shoot things till they die. Sometimes they're a lot bigger then me and I run away.

REG: And how would you describe your relationship with the other members of the team?

Z-ONE: Reven's cool. She's a good leader. She looks good in that tight silver suit.

REG: Can I ask why you wear the mask and helmet all the time?

Z-ONE: No.

REG: Anything else you'd like to add?

Z-ONE: No.

-----

Larry stood there fuming. Reg and Jerry, on the other hand, were laughing. "That guy was brilliant!" Jerry laughed. "He's great! We should do a full profile on him! Maybe give him his own episode. Z-One, international man of mystery!"

"He's certainly a character." Reg said.

"I hate you all." Larry added.

There was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Reg shouted between fits of laughter.

"Sandra." the voice on the other side replied. "I'm, uh, here to tell you that we've gotten another job."

"What, already?" Jerry asked.

"Yeah." Sandra said. "We're heading out now if you guys want to come along."

"In the middle of the night?" Larry asked.

"Yeah, well it's reasonably urgent." Sandra said. "So you guys coming or what?"

"Are we ever!" Jerry shouted. "I got this great new low-light camera that I've been dying to try out. Besides, the 'night vision' shots from your Zoid's sensors should be pretty damned cool to boot."

"Cool beans." Sandra said. "Be downstairs as soon as possible. We're going as soon as we're ready."

-----

At the base of the hotel, a pair of shadowy figures were waiting around the corner from the main street. They had stalked their prey to this building, and were ready to strike. As soon as the targets left, they would ambush them and eliminate them in a single blow.

Or at least that was the plan.

"Where are they?" Jessica asked. She had been poised ready to strike for half an hour now, a large, wicked-looking curved sword in her hand. "Jessica is, putting it crudely, freezing her little derriere off here waiting for these impudent fools to make their move."

"Excuse me senior..." Monica began. She was holding a rather oversized revolver in her hand. From the looks of things, she probably wouldn't be able to fire it without knocking herself over and probably breaking her arm.

"Not now, Agent Monica." Jessica replied. "I must maintain my absolute concentration for the moment when I strike to destroy the enemies of lord Ebonflak."

"Yes senior." She replied. "However, this matter does relate to those ignorant masses."

"Well then say it, Agent Monica. Don't waste your senior's time otherwise."

"It appears that the targets are leaving in their Guysack over that way." She indicated to a Zoid hanger behind the pair of them. True enough, the Guysack was walking off, having joined a Shield Liger, Gunsniper and Command Wolf.

"What?!" Jessica cried. "They are escaping! Those ignorant masses have slipped through our grasp again!"

"Should we pursue them, Senior?"

"What an excellent idea Jessica!" She shouted. "Quick! To the Zeekdobers!"

-----

Their employer had been somewhat urgent in his request for them to take this job. No wonder, Sandra thought as she watched the enemy group through a feeds from Vic's long-range radar. They were already on the move, probably heading out to whack some poor village into oblivion. Fortunately, the enemies were trying their best to maintain a formation, thus their fastest Zoids had slowed to match their slowest ones. This meant that Sandra and company were now faster the them, and had managed to sneak ahead of them.

"So what have we got?" Rick asked. The three of them, along with the Guysack, were perched on a ridge, watching through their low-light cameras as the group approached in the distance.

"Brachios." Vic replied. "Two Brac, one darthed. Four big guns. Baby Ultrasaurus."

"Right." Sandra said. "And the others?"

"Scaddy little roadkills." She said. "Guntiger and Diloforce. One Groundchar. No Mantis."

"A Darthed Brac and little guys? In the middle of a desert?" Sandra said. "That doesn't make much sense."

"Does it ever?" Vic asked.

"Check that. Who Darths a Brachios in the first place?"

"Pants?" Rick offered.

"Don't even finish that thought." She replied. "How are you guys going?"

"Great." Jerry replied. "These low-light shots are good. Man, I'd love to see what a real Dark-"

"Don't say that." Sandra said.

"Right." He replied.,

"Okay, here's the twisted mockery of a plan." Sandra said. "The ground cover is too dense for us to keep sniping; the little guys will probably go to ground anyways. Vic, I want you to start by sniping either of the Bracs, preferably the Darth. He's likely their leader, and I don't like the looks of those guns. Rick and I will move ion to engage them at close range. Rick, use your smoke launchers to create some cover. Between the darkness, the smoke and our usual erratic running around, we'll probably be able to confuse them. Vic, you move in after us. Everyone got that?"

Dead silence.

"Ayup." Vic said. "Me kill things."

"Close enough." She replied. "Rick, you and I move further down the canyon, get ready to strike."

"Right." The Shield Liger and Command Wolf cautiously began to make their way down the sides of the ridge. Behind them, Vic's Gunsniper turned around to point its main gun at the oncoming Zoids.

"Brachios, Brachios... Living your life in your little rice cooker." Vic began muttering as she lined up the shot.

"What's she doing?" Larry asked.

"Oh that?" Rick replied. "She does it when sniping some days. You get used to it after a while." There was a pause. "No, I lie. You never do."

"Right." Larry replied apprehensively.

"Heat and serve." Vic finished. "Bang!"

The Darthed Brachios staggered in place as the shot tore into its body. Surprisingly enough, it didn't fall. "Damn, those things are tough." Sandra muttered. "Rick, let's go."

"Right after you!" He shouted as the two Zoids rand own into the canyon. Rick opened fire at the Damaged Brachios, his shots hitting the cannon pod on its side. One of the cannons exploded, taking out the other one and showering the two Brachios with debris, but it remained upright. "Hey, I think that guy has managed to up-armour his Brach!"

"Great. Just what we needed. A Brachios set to Ultra-tooly."

The damaged Brachios Staggered off to one side, while its unmodified companion opened fire with its chest-mounted beam cannon. Behind them, several of the attack Zoids opened fire with their weapons. "Rick, smoke! Now!"

"Gotcha." The Command Wolf ran out in front of the Liger, leaping and bounding back and forth while spraying smoke from its back-mounted dispensers. Behind him, Sandra followed a different zigzagging pattern so that shots that missed Rick wouldn't hot her either. She figured by now the bad guys should be totally lost. She was.

The normal Brachios staggered out of the smoke, its head weaving form side to side as it looked for its opponents. Not wanting to give him a chance, Sandra opened fire with her Zoid's shot cannon. The shots hit the Brachios, tearing armour of its right foreleg, exposing the joints and staggering it. Before it could respond, the armour on its rear flank exploded, sending it stumbling forwards.

"What the?" She asked herself. "I can't have hit it that hard... Still, an opportunity is an opportunity." She charged forwards, opening fire with her back-mounted cannons, The shots peppered the Brachios' already damaged leg, tearing up the exposed structure and servos. Unable to cope with the stresses it was under, the leg twisted and then snapped, sending the Zoid tumbling down onto its side. Sandra noted that there was a gaping hole in its rear flank, probably caused by a large explosive weapon.

"Hang on a-" She began, but was cut off by a hit to her Zoid. The liger staggered, but remained standing. "Okay, who's the tool dumb enough to do that?"

Another shot went past her, allowing her to see the source of the attack. A Guntiger was crouched behind a rock, its head bowed with the main cannon visible. Next to it, a Diloforce appeared out of the smoke, snarling at her.

"Stupid tools." She muttered. Throwing the throttle open, she charged at the pair of them. Before they could react, the Liger opened fire with its side mounted missile pods, peppering the two of them with hits. The Diloforce, not able to activate its shield in time, dropped to the ground, apparently out of action. The Guntiger was hit and managed to limp away.

"He's not so tough." Sandra muttered. Suddenly, there was an explosion next to her cockpit. Looking aside, she could see a second Guntiger lying on the ground with several holes in the side. Across from her, she could see Vic's Gunsniper, its side cannons smoking.

"Kitty tried to bite so I had him put down." She said.

"Uh, thanks." Sandra replied.

"It's all good." She said as the Gunsniper dashed past her into the smoke. Sandra was about to follow when she heard something., It sounded like a beam weapon firing, probably a heavy caliber, rapid firing, mutli-barreled weapon. Like a...

The Darthed Brachios ran out of the smoke, numerous bullet holes torn in its flanks and tail. Sandra leaped aside before it smashed into her. "You stupid, fat, hairy tool!" She shouted. "Come back here!" She turned the liger around, heading after the fleeing Zoid. The Brachios, having presumably seen her coming, ducked into a side passage from the main canyon, firing its back-mounted cannon as it went..

"No you don't! Sandra shouted. Putting her shield up, she blocked the shots. Skidding past the canyon entrance, she let the Brachios fire into the air before proceeding. Confident that he thought he'd lost her, she proceeded cautiously into the canyon, trying to remain as silent as possible. As she slowly rounded a curve, she heard a loud noise, like metal being torn asunder. Suddenly worried, and in spite of her better judgement, she broke into a run, desperate to reach the end of the canyon. When she did, she wished she hadn't.

In front of her, the Brachios' body lay on the ground, numerous holes blasted in its flanks and its extra cannons torn away. Something crashed down on the body in front of her. Looking down, she could see what it was. The severed head and neck of the Brachios, looking like it had been torn off.

Or bitten.

She looked up at the shape looming over it the Zoid's mutilated carcass. It was a sinister black Zoid, it's shape picked out by an ominous green glow coming form several points on its body, specifically its chest and eyes. She could make out some details in the light projected from the glow. Claws. Cannons. Teeth. Tubes. A Deadborder. It roared as it stood over its defeated opponent, as if to warn the Liger off.

"Oh tool." She muttered. "Tool tool tool tool tool."

A small vid window opened, with Vic's smiling face on it. "Five weeks, three days." She said. "Not bad."

-----

I have always wanted to write this line...

-----


	31. Station Break

Red Rock Ridge

The Wastelands

0100 Hours

TAPE TRANSCRIPT ADSL0702

SCENE: A valley in the wastelands. The CAMERA GUYSACK is in the background, illuminating the area with lights on the tail. SANDRA and RICK are present, and a DARKHORN and HELDIGUNNER are standing in the background. Reg says: Dump this one. Larry says, God damn it, just use it

SANDRA: Great. Frelling brilliant. Why now of all times?

RICK: Its the way life works, I'm afraid.

SANDRA: Don't remind me.

A man and woman enter. The woman has long dark hair and dark skin. The man has short black hair and is heavily built. Both wear dark grey uniforms with a dark red trim.

WOMAN: Can I ask what's happening here?

SANDRA: I was going to ask the same thing. What the frelling hell are you doing all the way out here?

WOMAN: I can't say. That's classified.

RICK: Hoo boy. This is going to hurt.

SANDRA: Try me.

WOMAN: We're on assignment.

SANDRA: Right. And you can't tell me what.

WOMAN: Sorry, Sandra, but no.

SANDRA: Thought so. Shouted Damn it! Why can't we get away from you tools.

RICK Quiet: I don't think you should call them that-

WOMAN: I'm not here after you personally, if that's what you think.

MAN: Excuse me captain... He points to the camera

WOMAN: What's that?

SANDRA: It's a camera crew. We were filming a documentary.

WOMAN: Okay. She turns to the camera Can you stop the camera, please? I said, stop the camera.

The Man advances towards the camera

MAN: She said, stop the camera! He blocks the view of the camera; it shakes to a degree then falls over sideways; the only thing in shot now is people's feet

WOMAN: Bob, you didn't need to do that.

MAN: I'm sorry, captain, but he wasn't stopping.

RICK: Told you it would hurt.

End transcript

-----

"You okay, Jerry?" Reg asked, looking down as the downed cameraman.

"Ooowwwww..." He replied. Jerry had been hit hard by Bob (The name the woman had given for the big, angry looking man). He'd seen a lot of this sort of stuff in this life, but it still hurt. Fortunately he didn't seem to be injured or, for that matter, the camera broken. "I think I'm fine. That guy had a fist like a brick wall."

"Any idea who these guys are?" Larry asked. Behind them, Sandra was shouting at the dark-skinned woman, while Rick and "Bob" (if that was really his name) looked on. Another Heldigunner and Vic's Gunsniper were standing over the prisoners from the battle, while a Deadborder lurked on top of a nearby cliff. "You don't recongise them from anywhere?"

"Not immediately." Reg replied. Their uniforms were unfamiliar and he couldn't make out any markings on their Zoids. Heldigunners were reasonably common Zoids, but not as common in the early, black and green version. Deadborders and Darkhorns were less common, but by no means completely unusual. He noted that the second Heldigunner had been modified with a heavy cannon in place of its AA gun. "Whoever they are, Sandra knows them."

"I think that woman is the leader." Larry said. "She and Sandra seem to have some past issues with each other."

"By dose..." Jerry added as he sat up.

"Who are these mysterious people? What is their connection to them? What are they doing here? Where did they get their snappy uniforms?" Larry began. "Find out on tonight's very special episode!" He grinned. "This is great stuff. Great stuff. And that girl in the black outfit's pretty hot too."

Reg rolled his eyes. He was really beginning to regret the deals he'd made in order to get this damn documentary made. He certainly was beginning to hate working with Larry. "How about we listen to them and stop filming?" Reg said. "They've already beaten up Larry."

"We'll stop filming." Larry said. "At least, obviously. We can discreetly monitor these guys. We try to find out who they are, where they're from and what they're doing here." He turned around, and walked back to the Guysack, rubbing his hands. "This could be great stuff. Great stuff." He muttered. "I could get rich off this. Then I could buy that villa in the countryside I've always wanted and run around na-"

The ground in front of him shook then cracked open. Larry stumbled back as something emerged from the ground, hissing and snarling as it went. Looking up at it, all he could see was teath, claws, tubes and guns.

"Better make that three Heldigunners." Reg calmly added.

-----

Sel's wrist communicator beeped. "Excuse me." She said to Sandra before picking it up. "Yes? What? Well keep them there."

"Something up?" Sandra asked.

"Bekka's keeping an eye on your documentary crew." She replied. "Basically making sure they don't try taping us."

"Better watch it." Sandra replied. "Their boss used to make 'Reality' shows. He's probably good with hidden cameras and perving."

"What?" Sel asked.

"Reality TV." She replied. "You know, put a bunch of beautiful-looking whiney twentysomethings into one spot, watch them pretend to be acting 'real world' and flash the camera and decide each weak which one you loathe the most. Winner gets a big deal prize and five seconds of fame."

Sel shook her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You don't have Reality TV where you are?" She asked, and whistled. "That hole in the ground is looking more attractive by the day."

"What?"

"Never mind." Sandra replied.

"Anyway, what was your interest in these guys?" Sel asked. "I'm assuming someone hired you to take them out."

"Pretty much." Sandra replied. "They were bothering some locals, so we had to put a stop to it. You?"

"Classified." Sel replied.

"Right. I should have figured as much." Sandra said. "But the fact that these guys are from A-X can't have escaped your attention. It's the most logical reason I can think of for you guys coming around to thwack some bunch of wandering desert tools."

Sel sighed. "Can we talk? Somewhere a little more..." She gestured around to the canyon. "Private?"

"Is that a good idea, captain?" Bob asked.

"I pretty much think that Sandra has figured it out already." She replied.

"Might as well." Sandra said. "I for one am about to fall asleep on my feet. We're staying at a nearby town. You can stop there for the night and we'll sort it all out in the morning."

-----

"Umm... Hail Ebonflak!" Captain D'Allevera shouted as enthusiastically as he could under the circumstances.

"Yes." He casually replied.

"I beg forgiveness for this interruption, Commander." He began. "But I have some more disturbing news."

"Do go on." He continued.

"Lieutenant Snodgrass has failed to report in from his assignment, sir." He continued. "He never radioed in to say that he had reached the objective either. While it was possible that he was maintaining radio silence for the duration of his mission, I suspect that something may have happened to them."

"It is indeed a disturbing development." He said. "And do you have any further news of Captain Watanabe or Major Shepherd's whereabouts?"

"Um, no, sir."

"Very well." he said. "I will deal with them personally. You may go."

"Yes sir. Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you." He backed out of the room as quickly as he could.

Ebonflak sat alone in silence for a minute before speaking. "Radnor?"

A figure emerged from around the side of the throne. it could only be described as an approximation of a man, hunchbacked and bald-headed, he had a large, hooked nose and beady green eyes that made him look like nothing as much as a humanoid vulture. He wore a black cloak, decorated with a red trim, and rubbed his hands together gleefully and twitched whenever he talked.

"Yes master?" He sneered.

"How are the modifications to the Godkaiser going?"

"They are nearly complete, master." He replied. "I have completed the construction of the components and the modifications needed to connect them to the Zoid. I only need to complete the final assembly and go to the testing. I estimate that your Zoid will be ready by tomorrow morning, Master."

"Excellent work, Radnor." He said. "Your work is, as always, of excellent quality."

"Thank you, master." He said, then slipped back into the shadows behind the throne.

Ebonflak smiled. When he'd joined A-X, he'd bought Radnor with him. He'd always been impressed with himself for discovering the man... thing... person... Darth's abilities and utilising him for his cause. It was with Radnor's help that they had been able to optimise the few mid and large-size Zoids in A-X's arsenal into more powerful configurations of his design. Ebonflak had requested that he perform a similar series of modifications on Desmond's God Kaiser, the Zoid that Ebonflak himself now piloted.

With Desmond out of the picture and most of his supporters eliminated, he was now in absolute control of A-X. Everything was going to his plan. (Well, except for a few bases being destroyed, some troops being captured, Jessica and Monica's failure to capture those cameramen and Shepherd and Watanabe's mysterious disappearances.) Soon, his time would come.

-----

Sandra had decided to forgo explanations for the night and wait for the morning. She figured that she was too tired and angry to listen properly any way. So they'd spent the night crammed into three hotel rooms (Or more to the point, with seven people crammed into two rooms. Nobody had volunteered to share a room with Vic.). In the morning, Sandra and Sel and retreated to Lanard's single trendy (and out of character with the rest of the town) cafe. In order to remain inconspicuous (or as inconspicuous as a tall, exotic-looking woman could be. At least she didn't have any warpaint on, Sandra mused.) Sel had decked herself out in some of Sandra's spare clothes.

At the moment they were both nursing expensive coffees and talking. "You were right about the A-X connection." Sel admitted. She sipped her coffee and screwed up her face.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad." Sandra said. She was right, It wasn't that bad. Then again, for the price it wasn't that good either. "So you guys were beating up a bunch of A-X tools in the middle of the desert. Now I'm going to guess that you didn't come out here just to find them, just like you didn't come all the way out here originally just to beat up a few mutant gerwalk Zoids."

"Good point." Sel replied. She set her coffee aside. "The simple answer is that we're trying to follow up a potential security risk. The A-X group that infiltrated our city had full access to the material contained within Quentin's journal. While it's possible that only that group had that information, we can't afford to take that risk."

"So you took it upon yourselves to try to wipe out A-X on your own." Sandra replied. "And that's why you're here."

"Pretty much." Sel finished. "Obviously we can't let anyone else know about this. The irony is we're doing both the UZN and the Empire a favour and they won't know about it."

"And at the same time, you can't afford to let either of them decide to wipe out A-X themselves and accidentally find the journal."

"That's where we have a small advantage." Sel said. "We captured one of their highest-ranked agents when their operation failed. They've been providing us with information, such as troop dispositions, locations of bases... you name it. Unfortunately, she hasn't given up the location of their central headquarters as yet."

"You sure this information is reliable?" Sandra asked. "I find it hard to believe that they'd volunteer all this information."

"So far it's been accurate." Sel replied. "And it's the best lead we have."

"I guess that makes sense." Sandra said. "Maybe you just got the one A-X agent who doesn't believe in the death or glory approach"

-----

Amelia Snow glared at the two officers sitting in front of her. "I know what you want." She began. "You want to know all about us. You want all the information in my little head about A-X, its bases, its troops, its operations its everything."

"That would be the gist of it." The red-haired female officer replied.

"Well here's an idea." She said. "I'll volunteer that information in exchange for a few things."

"Name them." She replied.

"The first thing; no executions. I'm not to be used and discarded. I get to stay here as long as I live."

"A fair deal." The male officer replied. "Go on."

"Number two, I want to live out my life in some degree of luxury. A nice room with a comfortable bed and my own shower and toilet. If I'm going to be here for the rest of my life, I want to at least be comfortable doing it. And don't worry about the security. You know that if I escape, I'm not going anywhere."

"That... can be arranged." The female officer replied. "And the third?"

"That... Thing." She said. "Victoria Hagen. I know you have her imprisoned here. I want to be as far away from her as possible. I never want to see or hear her again."

The two officers looked at each other for a moment. "That can be easily arranged." The woman finished.

-----

"I have no idea who they are, though." Sel continued. "But I think it's one of the senior agents you and Captain O'Bannon captured."

"Damn." Sandra swore.

"Something up?" Sel asked.

"If I'd know you were in the hunt for A-X agents, I could have saved you some."

"Huh?"

"We captured a few A-X tools a week back." Sandra began. "I arranged for someone form UZN intelligence to come around and pick them up."

"Shame." Sel replied. "Still, we've taken a number of prisoners so far in this operation and they've been updating and confirming what we allready know. I don't think that a few more would make much difference to us."

Sandra sipped her coffee. "You haven't touched yours." She noticed.

"It's terrible." Sel replied.

"Ah. I can see someone is never going to be a member of the cafe society." Sandra said, sarcastically. The truth was, compared to the coffee she'd drunk back in Sel's home, it was terrible. And this was better then average coffee too. Weird.

"Excuse me." Said a voice form behind her. She turned around in her seat, looking up at the man looming over her. The recongised him as Nick Peterson, the man who had come to collect the captured A-X pilots she and Sel had been discussing. "Sandra Blackmore?"

"Yeah." Sandra replied. "What's up?"

He grabbed a seat from a nearby table and sat down. "Its about those prisoners you had for me."

"What about them?" Sandra asked, her eye narrowing.

"They're not there." He simply stated.

"What?"

"Apparently, someone came for them last night at about the same time as I was meeting you." He replied. "A woman called Amelia Snow who claimed to be from UZN intelligence. You wouldn't happen to know this person?"

Sandra had to think about it for a minute. "No." She replied. "Sel?" She turned to look at Sel, who simply shrugged. "Nope. Can't help you with that."

"And did anyone else know about these prisoners, besides the authorities here?" He asked.

"Only the other members of my team; Rick R. Mortis and Vic Hagen." Sandra replied. "And I know they didn't tell anyone else about them. You can ask them yourself." Mentally she figured what were his chances of getting a straight answer out of Vic. Not good. Could still be funny to watch.

"You don't know where thay would be right now?" he asked.

"Vic, I have no idea. Probably perched on a high place and giggling. And Rick, well..." she glanced at Sel who just nodded. "I have no idea."

"Thank you for that, Ms Blackmore. I'll be in touch." He stood and left.

They waited a minute. "I take it he was the man who came for the prisoners?" Sel asked.

"Yeah." Sandra said. "Only it seems that some other tool has taken them already." She pulled out a crumpled note and a few stray coins and left them on the table. "Excuse me, Sel. I think I'd better see Captain O'Grady and find out what's going on here."

-----

Unlike the others, Larry had woken up relatively early the next morning. He knew an opportunity when he saw one, and wasn't going to let it pass. He'd poked Jerry awake, and mentioned that he shouldn't wake Reg. When Jerry had asked why, Larry had merely said that Reg would thank him for it later.

They'd made their way into the hanger there the Dark Zoids from last night were stored. (Larry hade bluffed his way past security; they'd seen him arrive the previous night with them) Once inside, he'd tasked Jerry with getting as much footage of the Zoids as possible, paying special attention to their markings. Besides the usual neon-green identification numbers and the usual hazard warnings, they mostly lacked any form of identifying markings.

Eventually Jerry had located some form of insignia; a five-pointed black star, picked out from the rest of the Zoid's hulls by a grey outline. Neither of them recognized it, however. Larry said he'd have to look it up later.

As the pair of them left the hanger, something caught his eye. An attractive young woman, with long red-coloured hair and numerous tattoos up her bare arms. "Whoah." Larry muttered. Then something clicked inside his head. She was one of the Heldigunner pilots from last night. "Follow her!"

"You sure boud dat?" Jerry asked. His nose still hurt from last night.

"Definitely." He said. "If we can follow her, we might be able to find out more about them."

"The fact that she's hot doesn't hurt either." Jerry added.

"Cor." Larry added as he peered at the gap between the bottom of her shirt and the top of her pants. "She reminds me of that girl we had in House Arrest Two. What was her name? The bitchy exhibitionist with a tattoo on her-"

"I tink dat wab all of dem." Jerry muttered.

Larry didn't notice. He was too busy watching her. Stopping at the end of the hanger, she looked around as if she was waiting for someone. The pair of them hid behind a waste skip and continued filming. "What's she doing now?"

A minute later Rick stepped around the corner, waving to her. He walked over to her, and they hugged, then kissed. "Say." Larry whispered. "Now this is getting interesting." After saying something that he missed (They clearly didn't want to be seen, he thought. Well, too bad. This was good material) they headed out to the main street.

"Follow them. But be discreet." Larry said.

The pair of them followed them out to the street, but were cut off by a Zoid stopping right in front of them. It was a black and red Saber Tiger, equipped with a flight pack on its back. "Hey!" He shouted at it. "Get out of the way!"

The Greatsaber turned towards the pair of them and then roared.

-----

"What the frelling hell is going on here, O'Grady?"

Captain O'Grady looked up from his coffee and newspaper. Sandra Blackmore, a woman who had recently become something of a pain in his life, was standing over him, an angry look on her face. "What do you mean?" He asked. He didn't like her. She made things complicated.

"Those prisoners I left with you a week ago." Sandra continued. "You know, the ones I said there would be someone along to collect at some stage?"

"Yep." He said. "What about them?"

"Somebody took them." She stated.

"That was the idea, I thought." He answered. "You said someone would come for them and, what do you know, they came for them."

"That's not what I mean." Sandra angrily replied. "The wrong person took them! You essentially let them get away!"

"I wouldn't say that." He replied. "Someone came sayin' they were from UZN intelligence and they were here to pick up those guys. They showed me a badge and all. How was I to know it was fake?"

Damn, he was being logical, Sandra thought. She hated it when they did that. "And didn't it bother you when a second agent came by to collect them."

"Nope." He replied. "As I said, first one looked official enough for me."

"Fine." Sandra said. "Right. What can you tell me about her?"

"Can't really say." He replied.

Great. Whoever this Amelia Snow was, she'd probably made sure that she wouldn't be traced. It probably wasn't even her real name. She'd probably paid off O'Grady to make sure he couldn't provide any information. She needn't have bothered; he was pretty useless as he was. "Fine." She said and turned to leave. "But if you remember anything, let me know."

And then the roof fell in, just to make her day.

-----

Out of town, looming on a hill, was a bright red Saber Tiger. Like the black and red Greatsaber in the town, this was no ordinary Saber Tiger, however. It was a Strengthened Saber Tiger, the rarest variant of the family. Its normal back-mounted cannon and missile launcher had been removed, and replaced with an Imperial Hyperbeam Launcher, the same type as the main cannon on the Iron Kong PK.

This was the personal Zoid of Taro Watanabe, senior agent of A-X. He was very proud of it, for numerous reasons. He had personally modified its beam cannon to be more powerful, more accurate and have a longer range then the standard version. He'd even given the Zoid a name, calling it "Exterminator" for some reason he'd never made clear. He sat in the cockpit, wearing his distinctive bright red uniform and helmet (Which, besides concealing his identity, contained a special targeting system for the cannon itself.) looking down at the town and his handiwork.

The town militia's central office, which was also their main troop barracks and holding cells, was lying in a smoking ruin. His cannon had knocked it down in a single hit. "Major Shepherd" He said into his communicator. "The militia's base is out of action. You are clear to attack."

-----

This was going to be an important moment for Rick. He'd been working on this speech for ages, merely awaiting the opportunity to use it. He was aware that he might never have the chance. He was also aware that if he did, he had to make the most of it, because he may never get the same chance again.

He'd taken Bekka to Lanard's single trendy Café and bought her morning tea. They'd talked, small talk mainly. How they were, what they'd been doing since they last saw each other, how everyone was (Rick had decided against mentioning Rose. After all, she'd said something about being undercover.) and so on. This had just been a warm-up for Rick to get to the main point of what he'd wanted to say.

"Bekka." He began. "There's, um, something important I've been meaning to ask you."

"What is it?"

He was about to speak, but the explosion cut him off. Turning around, he could see a column of black smoke rising from the middle of the town. "What the hell was that?" He shouted.

"An explosion, I think." She replied.

"Bekka!" He heard Sel shout from across the room.

"Captain?" She replied.

"The town's under attack!" Sel yelled back. "Get to your Zoid now!"

"Are we launching a counter attack?"

"Not at the moment." Sel stated. "However I want to have our Zoids ready to go immediately. I'm not risking loosing them."

"Yes, captain!" She shouted. "Sorry, Rick, I've got to run." Before he could say anything, she leaped up and left the table, leaving him sitting there, speechless.

"Well… that worked. I guess." He muttered. Then his own pocket communicator beeped. "What now?" He picked it up. "Yeah?"

"Kitty." Vic's voice said on the other end. "Big red kitty. Big gun. Sitting on the hill and shooting stuff."

"What?" Rick shouted back. He'd vaguely gotten what she was saying. "Where's Sandra?"

"No idea." Vic replied.

"Great." He finished. "Vic, I'll be there as soon as possible. Don't… Don't do anything… umm…"

"Oh don't worry about me. I'll be fine." She finished and cut him off.

"That's what I was afraid of."

-----

"Thank you for that, Taro." John replied form the cockpit of his Great Saber. "However, I doubt that will be necessary." He looked down at the two terrified men standing in front of the Zoid. "I have two of them now, and I'm about to get the third."

"Understood, Major. Should I continue the attack?"

"Hold your ground for the moment. However, if you see any potentially hostile Zoids, tell me and then eliminate them."

"Yes, Major." He replied and closed the link.

"Excellent." John said, and then switched on his PA system. "You there! How many are there in your recording team?"

"Th-three" Larry stammered out, the Greatsaber's impact cannon pointed more or less directly at his face. "M-myself, Jerry here and Reg M-Moore."

"Reg Moore?" John asked. "Is that as in Reginald Moore, the award-winning maker of 'Kongs in the mist?'"

"Y-Yes." He replied.

"Interesting. I do enjoy his works and would very much like to meet him." John explained. "In fact, I want you to bring him here, along with all the footage you've shot in the last ten days. In fact, I suggest that you do it right now."

"And what happens if I don't?"

"I simply kill your cameraman here and destroy any footage he may be carrying." He replied. "And then I come after you."

He could see the man visibly sweating. "I-I'll go and get him r-right now." The man replied.

"Good." John said. "I'll be right here when you get back."

-----

For the first time in her life, Sandra found herself loving prefabricated buildings. Sure they were bland and uncomfortable and comprised a distressingly high proportion of the architecture in the wastelands, but when they collapsed - which they often did - they tended to collapse in pre-fabricated sections and leave each other standing.

This was why she was still alive and relatively unharmed, she figured. The Militia's Headquarters had taken a direct hit from some sort of beam weapon that had collapsed its front half. Fortunately, she and O'Grady were in its back half, which was made from a separate building and, as such, were more or less unharmed.

She emerged from the small pile of debris from the second story that had landed on her, shaking her head. She has a few cuts and bruises, but for the most part was unharmed. Nothing worse then she got from a typical day's baseball.

O'Grady was standing in the middle of the room, shouting orders at subordinates. He seemed to have completely forgotten about her, which, all things considered, probably wasn't such a bad thing. She figured she was probably more use to everyone if he wasn't giving her orders. Right now, he was shouting at his men to get to their Zoids (if they still were intact) and eliminate the attackers (If they could be found).

She decided that this would be a good moment to leave.

-----

"What's happening, Larry?" Reg asked as he ran after his colleague. "You burst in, grab all the tapes and say that Jerry will be killed if I don't come with you. Now I'd like to know what is going on."

"A guy… in a Saber Tiger… threatened to kill me…" Larry puffed out as he ran, carrying several bags stuffed with discs. "…unless… I… got you…"

"So why didn't you get Sandra or any of the others?" Reg snapped.

"Couldn't… find… them" He wheezed out. He wasn't about to admit that he was spying on Bekka and Rick to Reg, at least not now. "Stupid… mercs… never do what… you want them… too… need… more… photogenic… subjects…"

They turned another corner. "Just give me a second." Larry said. He wasn't used to running. He didn't like running. He had planned on doing as little running as possible on this assignment. Sitting in the Guysack and bossing people around, yes. Perving on cute mercenary pilots, yes. Remixing whatever footage they got into a youth-demographic-friendly festival of sideways shots, extreme close-ups, gratuitous flesh-shots and plenty of battles, certainly. Being shot at wasn't a part of the plan.

"Excuse me." Reg began. "But you did say that it was a Saber Tiger, right?"

"Yeah." He wheezed. "A black and red one with a weapons pack on its back."

"You sure it wasn't a Zeekdober? They're black and red too."

"Dead sure." He said. "Why?" Then he turned around. A Zeekdober was looming over the pair of them, snarling. "Um…"

"Ahah!" A voice came form the Zeekdober's PA system. It sounded like an excited young woman and not the angry man that Larry had been threatened by earlier (Who actually had an accent similar to Vic's when he thought about it.) "There you are you little Ignorant masses! I, agent Jessica of the Secret Ideological Organisation A-X demand that you immediately surrender!"

"Nope." He replied. "Definitely a different pilot to the last one."

"Ah." Reg said. "We're in trouble now."

-----

"What's happening captain?" Matt asked as he ran into the Hanger. The other members of his squad were already present, activating their Zoids and preparing to move out. "I heard the explosion and got your message."

"There's a Zoid with a long-range beam cannon attacking the town." Sel replied. "I suspect that it's providing cover fire for an assault." She turned to look over the other pilots. "Alex, I want you to find cover, dig in and provide counterbattery fire. Your cannon should be able to outrange him. His fire is coming form the Northeast, directed at the center of town."

"Yes, captain!" he replied as he closed the Heldigunner's cockpit.

"Matt and Bob, I want the pair of you to cover the east side of town. Look for possible attackers but to not fire on them unless they fire first, is that understood?"

"Yes, captain!" The pair of them replied.

"Good. Bekka, you're with me. We'll do the same on the east side of town."

"Yes, captain." She replied. Sel thought she detected a degree of reluctance in Bekka's voice, which was unusual. Bekka was usually anxious or excited to be in combat and hated waiting. Of course, she realised, it could just be Rick. She'd had her first chance to see him in a month and something like this happens.

The Deadborder and Bob's Heldigunner left first, followed by the Darkhorn and Bekka's Heldigunner. Once they were sure the area immediately outside the hanger was clear, Alex's Heldigunner followed them and immediately ducked around to the empty lot behind the hanger, before digging into the ground in a cloud of dirt.

Sel lead Bekka into the town, constantly checking between her sensors and the main viewscreens for any enemy activity. So far, it seemed calm. Strange. Could the attack have been some sort of random act? A weapons test gone astray? Someone trying to make a statement? A disgruntled former militiaman?

Rounding a corner, a beep on her sensors caught her attention. Blocking the street ahead of them was a black and red Greatsaber. There was a man standing in front of it, his hands in the air. She zoomed in on him, and realized something. It was the cameraman from that documentary crew that Sandra had with her. The same one that Bob had punched out last night.

The Greatsaber looked up at the pair of them, and snarled.

-----

John stared at the two Zoids ahead of him. A Darkhorn and a Heldigunner. Dark Zoids. The same kind of Zoids as he'd fought a month ago on the Dark Continent. They couldn't be from the same place, could they? He stared at the pair of them.

Something clicked in his head. It made sense now. The attacks on the A-X bases. It was them, wasn't it? They knew that A-X knew about them, and had set out to plug a potential security risk. They must have captured a member of Desmond's command staff, he realized. Could it even be Desmond himself? Doubtful, but still it meant that A-X had been compromised. Could they be here after him? It was possible.

John was realistic enough to know his chances. His Zoid was faster and more agile then a Darkhorn, while the Darkhorn was far better armed and armoured. Unfortunately, speed and agility wouldn't be on his side in tight-packed urban conditions. And the Heldigunner gave the Darkhorn a considerable advantage.

He opened his comms link. "Watanabe, this is Shepard."

"Yes, Major?"

"Can you see me from where you are?"

"Yes, Major. I can also see a Darkhorn and Heldigunner."

"Good." He said. "When I move, and not before, I want you to open fire on them with your heavy beam cannon. Is that understood?"

"Yes major."

-----

By some stroke of luck, one of the few buildings that had survived the initial attack was the militia's Zoid Hanger. All five of their Zoids were inside and ready to go. "Men!" O'Grady shouted as he looked over his troops. A quartet of drop-outs and former mercenaries who had somehow ended up being under his command and, as a result, this town's only defense against attack. "There is a single Zoid attacking the town with long-range beam weaponry. He is in turn supporting at least six Zoids that are attacking the town itself. Your task is to contain these attackers and drive them back."

"Crikey!" Billy, one of his pilots exclaimed. "Aren't you asking a bit much of us, Captain? We're outnumbered as it is!"

"And what if their Zoids are bigger then ours?" Tom, another one added. "What if they've got a Deathsaurer?"

"They do not have a Deathsaurer!" He shouted. "They'd have destroyed the whole town by now if they did."

"What if they've got a Madthunder?"

"Be Quiet!"

"What if they've got a Trinity Liger?" Justin, his communications expert sneered.

"SHUT UP!"

"Just asking." He muttered.

"Now get to your Zoids!" He shouted. Within minutes, the hanger doors were open, with the Town Militia's machines striding into the field. Or something. In theory it sounded good. In practice, it was another matter. O'Grady's Mammoth was the only large Zoid amongst them. Billy's Chompz, Hiro's Legz, Tom's Spartak and Justin's Reptex huddled around it as if looking to the larger Zoid for protection.

"Justin!" O'Grady shouted over the comms link. "I want you to activate your jammers. Cut off all their communications and targeting."

"You sure that's a good idea, sir?" Justin asked.

"Of course I am!" He shouted back. "So just do it!"

"Well, yes sir." He said. "ECM is on."

"Go on, Bob!" He shouted. "Turn up the juice on that baby."

"My name's Justin, Sir but… well, heck. Sure thing. Turning it up… now. She's up. It's… its running on maximum power now. Its in the red, sir."

"Excellent work, Kevin."

"It's in the red… my name's Justin… I'm your comms guy."

"Of course you are." He smiled. "Now let's get to work."

-----

Taro stared into the targeting system. He could see the major's Greatsaber right in front of him. The Darkhorn was partially obscured by a nearby water tower, but its head and forward half were clearly visible and were an easy target. The Heldigunner was almost completely obscured by the Darkhorn. He didn't see it as a problem, however. With the Darkhorn damaged from his hit, the Heldigunner wouldn't be a problem for John.

As he focused on the Darkhorn, something else came to his attention. His sensors were detecting a number of other Zoids moving in the town. Glancing down at the sensor screen, he tried to figure what they were. Then the blips on the screen jumped and blurred, before the scope filled with static.

"They're jamming me?" He asked himself. Flicking the radar set on and off several times, he confirmed it. Somebody in the town was jamming his sensors. Fine. He'd have to resort to manual targeting. Switching Exterminator's controls over to manual, he waited for John's signal.

The Greatsaber backed up from the Dark Zoids, then squatted down, as if it were ready to pounce. Waiting a second, it leaped into the air, firing its back-mounted thrusters and deploying its wings to take flight. There. That was the signal. He squeezed the trigger.

Just as he did, there was a puff of smoke from the center of town, followed by a loud whistling noise. A shell landed right in front of the Saber Tiger, throwing it backwards, just milliseconds before he fired. The cannon activated, its beam sweeping wide of the Darkhorn and instead striking a squat concrete bunker in the middle of the town. Much to his surprise, the bunker exploded in a huge ball of flames.

-----

The explosion shook the group of Zoids waiting in the militia compound. "What in the name of Tomy was that?" O'Grady shouted.

"Offhand, I'd say it was Lars's Guns exploding, but I could be mistaken." Justin replied. Lars' Guns was the biggest - and only - weapons dealer in the town. He was single-handedly supporting Lanard's mercenary industry from his store. As a result, he had a lot of ammo lying around. A lot.

"Well…" The mammoth looked around at the small Zoids gathered around it. "Don't just stand there you miserable lot! Go out there and arrest every damn Zoid you come across!" The Spartak, Chompz and Legz scurried from the compound as fast as they could.

"What about me?" Justin asked. "You want me to go out there and kick butt too?"

"No, you stay here and coordinate the operation." O'Grady replied. "I'll deal with this myself." The mammoth stomped out of the yard following the others.

"Stay here and run things. Right." Justin sat back in his cockpit and smiled. 'I could deal with that."

-----

Vic's Gunsniper and Rick's Command Wolf stepped out of their hangers, only to be confronted by another pair of Zoids; a Dibison and a Redhorn equipped with a Hiblit Vulcan. Woof growled, Rick feeling the Zoid's anger and fear through the link. He was clearly trying to be menacing, despite being far smaller then either of them.

"Hey!" The Dibison pilot shouted. "What's going on around here! What's with all the fire and the explosions and the bang going on?" Next to it, the Redhorn seemed to be shaking its head.

"Stuart?" Vic asked, her Gunsniper cocking its head. "Is that you?"

The Dibison seemed to be taken back for a minute. "Vic?" The pilot replied. "Vic Hagen? Hey! Long time no see! How you been, little buddy?"

"Good." She replied. "I got to run around in a Deathsaurer and do fiery burnination for a while. That was fun." Rick sighed. They'd asked Vic not to talk about the Deathsaurer, so naturally she told everyone. Of course, few believed her.

"Um, Vic?" Rick asked.

"Hey! That's cool! I've always wanted a Deathsaurer! Man, with one of those babies I could-"

"Shut up, Stuart!" The angry woman in the Redhorn interjected. "Now, I want to know who the hell you two are and what's going on here!"

"Well, my name's Rick R. Mortis. I'm a mercenary by current occupation but my real training and area of specialty is comic book artist/writer. Perhaps you've heard of me?"

"No."

"Ohh." He replied, somewhat deflated. "Well, anyways, I'm a merc working from here and so is my partner Vic."

"Right." The Redhorn pilot replied. "My name's Anna Conda and-"

"Anna Conda." Vic said, and sniggered.

"She's always like that." Rick hastily offered. Angry-sounding people in heavily armed Zoids were never good news.

"-and this is my, um, partner, Stuart Finaly."

"HI!" He shouted. Rick shook his head again. An Idiot in an even more heavily armed Zoid was, if anything, worse.

"Right." Rick replied. "Okay, here's the deal. There's a bunch of, um, friends of ours going around the town in Dark Zoids. They're on our side. What we're trying to do is find out what's happening and deal with that. Preferably starting with whatever tool is zapping us with the death-ray. That sound reasonable."

There was a massive explosion behind them. "Wow. They blew up the gun shop. Pretty." Vic said, and whistled.

"Right. Now I'm in a mood to kill." Stuart added. "Let's go."

-----

Jessica stared down at her two captives. "Ah ha! Now I've captured the two of you and all your tapes too! Lord Ebonflak will certainly reward me for this!" She sat back and smiled. "Why yes, Agent Jessica, you are the best agent I have in my forces." She said to herself in a deep voice. "Why thank you, Lord Ebonflak, you are too kind." She replied. "Not at all, Jessica. Your bravery and skill mean that you are invaluable to my great and glorious cause. Without you-"

"Excuse me, Senior." Monica's quiet voice interrupted her monologue. "Have you located the targets for this mission yet?"

"Why of course, Monica." She said, looking back down the targeting scope. "I have both of them right here in front of me."

"Both?" Monica replied. "But didn't lord Ebonflak say that there would be three of them?"

"Three?" She paused. "Three?! Oh Teacakes!"

"What-" Monica began, but she was cut off, her voice lost in a crackle of static.

"Monica? Monica?!" Jessica shouted into the communicator. "Can you hear me? Are you there? What do you suggest I should do?" She wailed, with only static for her reply. She looked around. "How could Monica desert me at a time like this? What am I to do?" She looked down at her two prisoners. "Well, maybe I can claim a partial credit for these two and all their valuable if subversive video material. Surely that'd be good enough for-"

A massive explosion nearby stunned her, sending Menchi staggering into the side of a building, collapsing it into a pile and throwing Jessica around the cockpit. "Ooohh…" She moaned. "Jessica's little head feels like it's broken." She blinked and then checked on her prisoners, only to find them gone.

"Oh no! What a cruel twist of fate this is! Clearly lord Ebonfalk's enemies have conspired against me!" She cried, Menchi howling to emphasise her point. "But wait, Jessica! This is no time for doubt or self-loathing! You must strike out in a bold and decisive action to regain your prize and claim it for lord Ebonflak!"

The Zeekdober all but leaped to its feet, setting out in a run towards the middle of the town.

-----

Tom cautiously maneuvered his Spartak down the smoke-filled streets, keeping his eyes on the sensors. He wasn't really looking for trouble, but he had his orders. Find and contain any enemy Zoids and restore order to the town. That couldn't be too hard, could it?

"Hey." Justin's voice came over the comms. "A bit of news in from Hiro. He says that the enemy are using Dark Zoids." He paused. "Oh yeah, he also asks if someone could please make the hurting stop."

"You hear that?" Captain O'Grady added. "Be on the look out for any Heldigunenrs, Deadborders or Dark Horns. And if you see them, take them out."

Tom gulped. A Spartak was no match for a Heldigunner, let alone a Deadborder or Darkhorn. Still, he had his orders…

Ahead he could see a shape moving in the smoke. It was a large, quadruped Zoid with a bulky weapons turret mounted on its back, silhouetted against the fire. He stopped the Spartak behind a building, only glancing out. As he watched, the Zoid turned its head, showing an array of spikes protruding from a large frill, and a large horn on its nose.

"A Darkhorn!" he said to himself. "Okay, this is no time to panic. Think, Tom, think." His Zoid was smaller, faster and more agile. And that was it. But he was more familiar with the layout of the town. His Zoid was more adept at hiding in the available cover. And the enemy's radar and communications were being jammed. Maybe he could try a hit and run type attack on this enemy.

Pushing the Spartak's throttle open to its maximum, he charged out from behind the building and fired into the smoke. He couldn't see clearly, but some of his weapons found their mark. Not wanting to hang around any longer then necessary, he broke into a run.

Behind him he heard a loud roar and the sound of something heavy moving. Watching his rear monitor, he gulped in fear as a massive Redhorn burst out from the smoke, its hindquarters damaged by his weapons.

"Redhorn?" He asked himself. "But… Oh dear."

-----

Sandra ran into the hanger, instantly noticing that Rick's Command Wolf and Vic's Gunsniper were absent. It could only mean that whatever was going on, the pair of them had tried to deal with it without her. No good could come of it.

Forgoing a change to her piloting gear, Sandra immediately clambered into her Shield Liger's cockpit. Not wasting any time, she powered the Zoid up and prepared to go. Only one problem, she thought. What the hell is going on? She realized that there was one good way to find out.

Activating the communicator, she tried to reach Rick. "Hey! Rick! You there?" After a moment, Rick's gormless face appeared on the screen.

"Oh, Hi Sandra." He replied. 'What's up?"

"What's up?" Sandra asked. "There's Zoids running around outside, the middle of the city's on fire and the local militia are shooting at anything that moves. I was hoping you could clarify things."

"Well…" He began. "There's some guy sitting on a hill trying to shoot things with a beam cannon. Sel sent out her men to try and stop him, but apparently they were attacked."

Another window opened up with Larry's face in it. He was inside their Guysack, and clearly looked worried. "And there was a Saber Tiger and a Zeekdober that both held us as hostages."

"Yeah." Vic added. "Zeekdobers took my baby."

There was a long silence. "Hey!" Rick finally spoke up. "Why is she allowed to say it but not me?"

"Shut up, Rick." Sandra said. "So there's a Saber Tiger and a Zeekdober trying to kidnap our boys. Anyting else we should know?"

Another window opened with an angry-looking, red-haired woman in it. "Damn it!" She shouted. "Some guy in a Godos just fired on me!"

"Godos?" Sandra asked.

"And there's someone else trying to jam our sensors and comms." Rick added. "I haven't been able to get through to Sel, but with no luck."

"Tool." Sandra muttered. "Okay, everyone, here's the plan. You clowns in the Guysack are to get the hell out of here. I don't care about your journalistic mission or whatever, you're the target of this attack so we're getting you out of the way. Everyone else, look for this Saber and the 'dober. And if you see any Dark Zoids, do not attack them. They're with us." She peered at the redhead. "And who the hell are you."

"My name is Anna Conda." Sandra tried not to say anything. "My partner, Stuart, and I were trying to figure out what was going on here ourselves."

"Right." Sandra said, trying not to think about her name. "Just so I know not to shoot you, what the hell are you two piloting?"

"A Redhorn and a Dibison." She replied.

"Oh." Sandra said. "I was expecting a Stealth Vi-"

"Don't say it."

-----

O'Grady was trying to keep the situation under control. It wasn't easy. The thick smoke was obscuring much of the town, which made it hard to keep track of all the enemy Zoids. His reports had indicated that there were more of them than he initially thought; The Dark Zoids and the hill-top sniper had been joined by a Saber Tiger, a Zeekdober or two and a Redhorn. He'd heard Billy screaming something about a Dibison, now that he thought about it.

A blurr of movement outside the town caught his attention. Zooming in on it, he could see a Guysack scurrying away from the town. Clearly they were involved in this attack, and were trying to get away while they could.

"Attention!" He shouted into his communicator. "There is a Guysack trying to flee the battle. Apprehend it at all costs."

At first there was silence. Then finally, Tom spoke. "I'm sorry captain. Due to the fact that my Zoid has been stamped into the ground, I will be unable to assist."

"Um, Mine's kinda been blown up." Billy added. "Sorry."

"Can somebody please make the hurting stop?" Hiro finished.

The Mammoth turned to look at Justin's Reptex. "Hey, don't look at me. You said stay here and jam their communications. So that's what I'm doing."

"And an excellent job you're doing of it, Cedric."

"Justin."

"Whatever." He smiled. "I guess I'll just have to deal with this myself." The Mammoth turned and strode out of the Militia's yard, and also out form cover. No sooner was it out of the gates, then a beam came down from the hills striking it in its hindquarters The massive machine staggered in pace, its back leg dragging behind it. A second beam struck it in the front leg, fusing the mechanisms into an immobile lump.

"Oh fignuts." He swore. His Zoid was stuck in place, right out in the open where it would be an easy target for an attacker.

-----

Taro looked down at the damaged Mammoth, inspecting the results of his attacks. The Zoid appeared to be disabled and unable to move, the two legs on the right side taken out of action. He was somewhat surprised that it wasn't out and out destroyed by his attack. Maybe he needed to refine his weapon some more.

Something moving on the outskirts of the town caught his attention. It was the Guysack, trying to get away from the town. No chance of that, he thought. I have seen you and I know what to do. He reached for the controls, of the cannon, then stopped.

Their orders had been to capture these men and their footage, not destroy it. His beam cannon would probably destroy the Guysack outright if he shot it. Not a valid option. Instead, he activated his communicator. "Major Shepard." He began. "The target is fleeing the town to the north. Suggest you intercept."

"It is already being dealt with." Shepherd replied, his Greatsaber leaping away from the burning mess of the town. "You cover me and take out anyone who might follow us."

"Yes, major."

There was another puff of smoke from the town, followed by a loud whistle. Their fire support! He thought. I'd forgotten about it! The Saber Tiger turned to leap away, only to be struck in the back. It reeled back and collapsed, the beam cannon a mess of wrecked components.

-----

The Guysack stood outside the town, its cameras trained on the chaos below. Every now and then they could see a weapon discharge, a building collapse or a Zoid moving. Jerry was recording quietly. Both Reg and Larry were considering their narration for this scene.

"What do you think's happening?" Jerry finally asked.

"Battle." Reg said. "The irony is that we're probably responsible for it."

"Why do you say that?" Larry asked.

"Well, whoever was attacking had come after the three of us." Reg replied.

"Why do you think that was?"

"Probably they didn't like some footage we shot." He said. "Hang on, one of them was in a Zeekdober. Do you remember the first battle we recorded?"

"Yeah. There was a bunch of Attack Zoids and that modified Command Wolf." Jerry replied. "And a pair of Zeekdobers that tried to sneak up on the pair of us."

"Maybe they're the same people." Larry said. "Hmm, this could be an interesting angle."

There was a growling noise from behind them. The Guysack cautiously turned around to see the same Saber Tiger as before. Its armour was dented and scratched in places, but it appeared to be fully functional. More to the point, it was more then capable of destroying their unarmed Guysack.

"Ah." Larry added. His cockpit was looking right at the Saber Tiger's shot cannon.

"It was very good of the three of you to all gather in the one place." The pilot said over his Zoid's PA system. "And, I suspect, you bought all your footage with you fro safe keeping. Now I suggest that you come with me, before I am forced to make you." To emphasise his point, the Saber Tiger raised its paw and held it above the Guysack's cockpit.

"I think we'd better listen to him." Larry said, the paw now blocking his viewscreen.

-----

"Monica! Monica! Where have you gotten to?" Jessica's Zeekdober wandered through the streets of Lanard, its pilot looking for her lost partner. "Now where could she have gotten to?" The smoke had made it hard for her to locate Monica, let alone the impudent media-types who were her true mission objective.

A beep from her sensor sounded, warning her that an enemy was approaching from behind. "Ahah!" She shouted. "Did you really think you could sneak up on m- AAACK!" The other Zoid opened fire on her, the impact knocking her Zeekdober down to the ground. Looking up, Jessica could see the attacker as it emerged from the smoke. She was somewhat surprised to see that it was actually Monica's Zeekdober.

"Monica!" She shouted. "What do you think you're doing blowing up your senior like that!"

"That was an accident, Senior." She replied, her Zoid looking almost upset.

"I'd like to believe that." Jessica muttered in reply.

"So what has happened to the targets of our operation, Senior Jessica?"

"Well." She said as Menchi sprang to its feet. "That is to say…" She slumped. "I lost them."

"Well, senior." Monica replied. "Perhaps we should look for them."

"Yes!" She shouted back. "A superlative suggestion, Monica! We must immediately set out to do what is right and needed by our great and glorious lord Ebonflack to find those…" she stopped and turned around. "…How long has that Dibison been there?"

The Dibison in question was standing at the end of the street, staring down the pair of them. "BANG!" its pilot shouted, as the Zoid seemed to open up with everything in its considerable arsenal.

"OH CR-"

"Oh my."

-----

A waning noise coming from the sensors grabbed Sel's attention. Something was coming up on her from behind. Due to the jamming, she couldn't ascertain what it was. Great. Only one option then, she thought. Visually identify the attacker, try to ascertain their intentions and hope I survive the initial attack, if any. Swinging the Zoid around, she could see a large, vaguely feline shape moving through the smoke towards her.

"Ready…" She muttered, one hand on the cannon controls. "Ready…"

The Zoid burst through the smoke. Sel swung the annon towards the Zoid's cockpit, just as it bought one of its paws down towards the Darkhorn's cockpit. Both of them stopped before striking, their weapons holding in the air.

Sel looked up. It was a Shield liger. A somewhat scarred and battered looking Shield Liger at that. "Sandra?"

"Sel?" Sandra's voice came from the Liger. "What's going on here?"

"That's what we've been trying to find out." She replied.

"Hey captain!" Alex's voice cut into her communications link. "I found our mad sniper, it was a Saber Tiger with a heavy beam cannon on its back. I think it's out of action."

"God work." Sel said, then turned back to Sandra. "I think we've the situation mostly under control."

"Hey!" Rick's voice interjected, butting in on the conversation. "We found our mad jammer."

"Yum ja-am." Vic added.

"It was some guy in a Reptex. Turned out he worked for the town militia. When we asked politely, he turned the noise of. However, there's a problem." Rick added. "The pilot said he saw a Guysack trying to escape from the city, only to be ambushed by a Greatsaber."

"Aw, tool." Sandra said. "Our friends from the doco crew. So what, someone got 'em?"

"Seems that way." Rick said.

"I hate to say it, Sel, but we';re all tooled now."

"Why me?" Sel asked. 'I didn't have anything to do with them."

"No, but If I know the way their boss thinks - and I'm making a pretty good guess - he's probably got ample footage of you guys '

"What?" Sel shouted. "We told them not to shoot any footage of us."

"Yeah, but he would have done it anyway." Rick replied. "Especially, since you and Bekka are so, ah, photogenic."

Sel blushed, then reminded herself that there were far more important things at stake, like their security. "So where are they now?"

Sandra's Shield Liger turned to look out over the desert. "That's what we need to find out."

-----


	32. Jumping the Shark

Lanard

The Wastelands

1700 hours

No sooner had everyone stopped screaming and running around then Sandra called everyone to a meeting. Actually, she'd shouted very loudly which had, after a fashion, gotten their attention. Sandra was good at shouting. People tended to listen to tall, menacing scarred people in black.

The venue chosen for the meeting turned out to be the pub downstairs from the hotel that they'd been staying in. The reasons for this were many; the availability of alcohol and the fact that it was still standing being chief amongst them. Sel had managed to round up all her men and bring them in. Anna had politely declined to be a part of any recovery operation. Sandra understood; she was more or less an innocent bystander in all this, and Stuart had managed to burn up enough ammo to nearly bankrupt the pair of them.

The analysis of the battle had revealed little. The attackers, such as they were, consisted of a Greatsaber, a Saber Tiger and one or two Zeekdobers (The actual numbers were unclear; certainly nobody had seen more then one at a time.) The biggest problem had been the commander of the town's militia. His orders had resulted in everyone stumbling around in confusion. As a consequence, three of the militia's five Zoids had been destroyed and a fourth severely damaged.

As much as she hated them, Sandra wanted to get the camera crew back. Her getting paid for all the pain they had put her through was dependant on them staying alive to pay her.

"So do you have any idea who they were?" Sel asked. Like Sandra, she wanted to get the camera crew back, but for different reasons. She was convinced they had footage of her and her men, something she did not want people to see.

"There is one thing." Sandra said. "A week ago when we bumped off those A-X tools there was a pair of Zeekdobers watching us." She began. "And they had A-X logos on them. And now we get attacked by a pair of Zeekdobers who try to capture the camera crew."

"Doggie." Vic added.

"Could be an outrageous coincidence." Rick replied. "I mean, they're not the only Zeekdober users in the world."

"It makes sense to me." Sel said. Sandra was inclined to agree with her, as she seemed to be the most sensible person present. "Besides, it's the closest thing we have to a lead."

"Great." Rick said. "So anyone here know of a local A-X base where they would likely be?" Everyone in the room glared at him. 'What? What did I say?"

Sandra turned to Sel. "What does your info say?" She asked. 'Got any hot tips for us?"

"Let's se…" Sel replied, pressing a few buttons on her wrist mini-computer. "Hmm… nothing nearby. Certainly nothing the could quickly reach in a ground-based Zoid." She looked around. "So unless they've escaped in a Whale King or the like, there's nowhere for them to go."

A beep came from her communicator. She looked down at it in surprise. "Give me a minute." She said as she walked out of the room.

"Fine." Sandra muttered. She looked over the map they had spread out over the table. "Anyone else got any ideas?"

"What's this thing over here?" Bekka asked, pointing to one spot on the map.

"That?" Sandra replied. "Uhh… Ruins. It's a place called Laswegaz that dates form the earliest days of colonization. Some bunch of tools decided to drop everything and build a big stepped pyramid in the middle of the desert for no readily apparent reason."

"Ziggurat," Vic added for no good reason.

"What happened to them?"

"Nobody knows. They abandoned the place and stripped it of everything valuable, leaving behind a big hunk of rock." She replied.

"Of course." Rick said. "That's where they are. In fact, I reckon that must be their world headquarters or something."

Sandra stared at him, and she suspected everyone else was. "Okay, Rick. Explain. Quickly."

"Well…" Rick began, nervously. "Evil overlords love to make their lairs in places like that. Ruined temples are probably one of the biggest picks for evil bases, along with volcanic islands. And since there's no volcanic islands nearby, I'm betting its there."

"Rick, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Sandra said. "Has it ever once occurred to you in all the months you've been out here that life isn't anything like your stupid comics?"

"Whoa." Rick replied. "I was just offering an opinion."

Before anyone could reply, Sel returned. "Good news." She began, "Intel has managed to pinpoint the location of A-X's command center. It's actually rather close to here."

"Then they'd likely have taken the camera crew there." Matt said. "It makes the most sense."

"Cool beans." Bekka added, grinning. "So show us where they are so we can smack 'em." Sandra watched the way she punched into her palm and grinned when she said that. Maybe she should cut down her sugar intake, she thought.

"Let's see." Sel replied. "Apparently, their base is located under a ruined temple complex." She looked over the map. "In fact, that's it there." He pointed on the map to Laswegaz.

Sandra glared at Rick. "Wha?" He said. "What did I do?"

"I hate it when you're right." She muttered.

"Did I miss something?" Sel asked.

"Only Rick offering a theory on the base's location." Alex replied. "Funnily enough, he turned out to be completely right."

"There, there." Vic said, placing a consolidatory hand on Sandra's shoulder. "Maybe they're idiots too."

"Looking at it, the area is pretty hard to defend." Sel observed. "There's a ridge behind the temple, but the other three sides are open and flat. In theory, we could just charge across there and use superior ranged firepower to cover a head-on attack. However, we could easily end up direfully outnumbered. Even with Attack Zoids as the bulk of the enemy force, that's not pleasant."

"Can't call in any outside help?" Sandra asked.

"My ship's on assignment elsewhere." Sel replied. "I could call it in, but it'll take them a while to get here. I suppose I could put them on standby as a last-minute escape, however."

"The problem's getting in there to get the crew out." Matt added. "I think we can leave off a full assault on their base until later. What we could try is punching a hole through their lines, getting Vic or one of the Heldigunners in, and then covering them until they can make it out."

"Actually, I have another idea." Rick said. "And we can get the camera crew out easier too."

"Oh?" Sandra asked. "What's the big idea then, Mister genius?"

"About twenty years ago, International Geographic did a feature article on Laswegaz." He explained. "A few years back, I dug out the article and used it as a reference for the design of Doctor Destroyer's secret jungle lair. I pretty much copied the layout, only moved it to a jungle."

"And?" Sandra asked, an angry look on her face.

"There's a mess of underground passages throughout the area." He explained. "Most of them are big enough for a small, quad Zoid to move through. Like a Heldy, for example."

"And they could easily dig their way in." Sel finished. "Brilliant idea. We provide a distraction outside while they go in and rescue the hostages."

"Actually, we could probably do a fair deal of damage to their infrastructure while we're down there." Bob added. "I'd be up fro that."

"And it could draw their troops back form the outside to deal with that problem." Matt added, then looked at Sel.

"Hmmm…" She looked over the map. "Actually, this could be the opportunity we need to take out their main headquarters. We begin the attack and take out as many of their Zoids as possible while you three do as much damage on the inside. I can call in the Null now, and they can provide reinforcements for us on the ground to finish them off."

"And all we need to do is get thwacked silly for a few hours." Sandra said. "I'd wonder why I'm doing this, but then I realise that it is people's lives at stake. Also they're going to pay us, so we need to keep them alive." She sighed. "Some days, I hate life."

"Come on." Rick said. "It's not that bad. Think of the fame. Think of the money."

"Money good." Sandra repeated to herself. "Money good."

"So if we're all agreed, we can leave as soon as possible." Sel finished, looking around.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Sandra quietly added.

-----

Within minutes, they were preparing to move out. Sel's men had changed into their proper pilot suits form the mish-mash of "whatever they had handy" that they'd been wearing this morning. The short version of the plan involved an all-night trek to reach the temple just before morning. After that, they attacked. Her only hope was that the enemy Zoids didn't arrive back too much sooner then they did.

Sel was checking on her Darkhorn's leg before leaving; she was worried the Legz it ran over may have done some damage. Other then that, it didn't appear to have taken any damage in the previous battle. "Hey, Sel." She heard Sandra say from behind her. She turned around to face the scarred mercenary.

"What's up?"

"How'd you find the location of their base anyway?" Sandra asked.

"One of our other teams bought in a group of A-X pilots as prisoners." Sel explained. "The information they gave was cross-checked with the information our informant has been giving us."

"Funny that." Sandra replied. "The prisoners I took vanish just as you get a new bunch yourselves."

"Look, Sandra." Sel said, angrily. "I had nothing to do with that. I didn't even know about them until this morning." She glared angrily at Sandra. "So I had nothing to do with their disappearance. Honestly."

Sandra sighed. "I guess I'm just getting paranoid in my old age." She shrugged. "Sorry about that."

"Old?" Sel asked. "I mean, I don't want to pry, but you can't be older then me."

"Huh?" Sandra asked. "I mean, I'm twenty-six"

"Twenty six." Sel replied. "Now let's get going." Leaving Sandra standing there, she climbed into her Darkhorn.

Sandra shrugged and walked over to her Liger. 'Wait a sec…" She thought just before climbing in. "How is she twenty-six? No way is she twenty-six."

-----

Laswegaz

The Wastelands

1900 Hours

"Hail Ebonflak!" John and Taro shouted as enthusiastically as they could. Vincent, standing next to them, repeated the gesture with just a hint of uncertainly.

"We wish to apologise for our absence over the last few days, Lord Ebonflak." John began. "However, we believe that what we have achieved in that time will be of great assistance to our cause."

"Go on." He replied. "But this had better be good. I am not known for my forgiveness."

A pair of guards entered, leading the three members of the documentary crew. "These ignorant masses are the ones who captured our troops, specifically agent Jessica, on film last week." He explained. "Larry Crispe. Jerry Day and Reg Moore."

"Interesting." Ebonflak replied, leaning forwards. "Is that Reg Moore, the award-wining documentary maker? The man behind 'Kongs in the mist?'"

"Well..." John seemed to be at a loss for words. "Well, yes, it is." He explained.

"I see." He said. "You have done well. You may leave now." John turned to leave. "But before you go, two things."

John turned back, looking slightly apprehensive. "Yes, lord Ebonflak?"

"Firstly, I need to know what happened to agents Monica and Jessica."

He tried to recall exactly what happened in that battle. It was hard. "I believe they had an unfortunate run in with an impudent outsider piloting a Dibison, sir."

"I see." He said. "Most unfortunate."

"And the other thing, my Lord?"

"You may go, but leave the camera crew here." Ebonflak replied as he casually adjusted his glasses. "I have a… special plan for them."

-----

"Well, what do you think?" Reg asked. The three of them were huddled in discussion and considering their options.

"Id's prodadly quide dangerous." Jerry replied.

"Yeah, but on the other hand, he's probably rather dangerous too." Larry replied.

"You have a point there." Reg said. "In Jerry and my experiences, we've found that it's a good idea to go along with the evil terrorist leader. At least until help can arrive."

"Yeah, and I have da scars from lasd dime." Jerry added. "So are we agreed?"

"Why not?" Reg replied.

"And it could make for great television." Gerry added. "Think about it. An exclusive interview with an evil terrorist leader. We get inside the mind of this dangerous criminal genius."

"Whatever." Reg muttered.

-----

Tape transcript ADSL0722

SCENE: The throne room of A-X's central headquarters. EBONFLAK is sitting on an ornate command chair with a banner with the A-X logo on it, while the rest of the room is dark. There is nobody else present. Larry Sayz: Throw in some static fuzz to this one, make it look like it's done via satellite or security camera or the like. Oh yeah, add a running timestamp and some witty label, like 'Manifesto Cam' or the like

REG: Thank you for, um, taking this time to speak to us, Lord Ebonflak.

EBONFLAK: It is not a problem. I feel that it is my duty to inform the ignorant masses of our mission to enlighten them.

REG: Indeed. So, um, can you tell us more about your organizations goals?

EBONFLAK: What you must realise is that this world is corrupt! The Ignorant Masses and their foolish leaders have been allowed to squander this planet and its resources for far, far to long! The rule of nations has lead to nothing but wars and poverty and destruction, creating a world where the future is not only dim but very, very dark indeed.

REG: And you will change this by…

EBONFLAK: By taking control of the entire world! Once A-X rules supreme over all mankind we will create a newer and better world where these inequalities and tragic failings of the current rule will no longer exist. We will stamp out all these things and create a new order based on logic and reason, with those enlightened people leading it.

REG: And what would qualify someone as being, um, enlightened?

EBONFLAK: One who has seen the true nature of this world and has the desire to change it according to our Ideology, of course. One such as myself.

REG: Can you tell us more about yourself? What did you do before you became a member of A-X?

EBONFLAK: Ah yes, the heady days of my youth. I realized my true calling, to rule, at a young age. I saw that my best path to power lay through the military. As such, I joined the imperial army, quickly rising through the ranks to reach a position of power and authority. However, I was not satisfied with my position. I met a Darth who had some interesting plans for Zoid modifications. The pair of us worked together on a special project behind the military's back. However, this project… it fell through. The ignorant fools who ran the army were displeased with our actions, despite what we had set out to achieve.

REG: Which was?

EBONFLAK: We had created a powerful new Zoid, the Deathbird. Our goal was to destroy the UZN's capital with it.

REG: So what did you do from there?

EBONFLAK: We fled from the Empire. Seeking out individuals of a similar mindset to my own, I eventually discovered this secret ideological organization known as A-X. From the instant we met, myself and its then leader, Emil Desmond realized that we both wanted the same thing; to bring to the world a newer, better order. When he rebuilt A-X, I became his second in command.

REG: So how did you then become the commander?

EBONFLAK: Desmond had an unfortunate accident in the Dark Continent. In his absence, I was forced to take command of the organization.

REG: So, besides taking over the world, do you have any plans for the future?

EBONFLAK: Well, starting up a garage band does come to mind…

-----

"What's he doing in there?" Vincent asked. He had his ear pressed firmly against the door to the command center.

"I have no idea." Taro replied, who also had an ear pressed to the door.

"Don't you two have anything better to do?" John asked, standing behind the pair of them. "Whatever Lord Ebonflak is doing in there, I'm sure it's for the good of the organization as a while."

The pair of them turned quickly to face him. "Yes, Major." They both said, looking somewhat embarrassed.

"Captain D'Allevera, I want you to check on our defenses. Make sure everything is ready." He stated. "Two of our bases have been attacked so far. I don't want the same to happen to this one."

"Yes, Major." He saluted and ran off.

"Captain Watanabe, what is the status of your Zoid?"

"The right foreleg is badly damaged and the main cannon is out of action. Walking back from Lanard has only made the leg worse." He explained. "However, the technicians are working on it and-"

"I want you to go down there and assist them. Make repairing the cannon the priority. I don't care if it can't move as long as long as that cannon is functional."

"Yes Major." He replied and also ran off.

As soon as he was sure the pair of them had left, he walked over to the door and pressed his ear against it. "What is he doing in there?"

-----

Ebonflak watched the documentary crew. At the moment they were sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, pouring over their footage from the interview. He'd have to get them a better TV and player, he thought. "Radnor." He spoke, quietly.

The hunchbacked Darth appeared form behind his throne. "Yes, master?" He replied.

"What is the status of the Godkaiser?"

"It is finished as you requested, Master." Radnor explained, rubbing his hands together.

"Very good." Ebonflak replied. "There is one more thing I want you to do, however."

"Oh?" Radnor looked almost surprised. "What is that, Master?"

"I want you to install a camera in the Godkaiser and connect it to the communications system." He explained. "One that record what I'm seeing and transmit it back here."

"Certainly Master." Radnor said, and vanished.

-----

Outside Laswegaz

The Wastelands

0530 Hours

A trio of Zoids marched across the landscape, silhouetted against the rising sun. Between them they couldn't have looked too much more different; a squat, spiny Groundchar, A slim, graceful Guntiger and a tall, bipedal Diloforce. For a moment the sun was directly behind them, their mismatched shapes spreading ion long shadows across the landscape.

Then there was a shot, and the Groundchar collapsed.

Before the Guntiger and Diloforce could react, a pair of loud blasts rang out across the empty desert landscape. The two Zoids were struck, being literally crushed into the desert sand by the force projected by the Gravity shells from the cannons.

"Splat." Vic commented, and whistled.

"That looks to be the only patrol in the area." Sel said, checking her systems. "We should have a good amount of time before they're missed to move in."

"Check." Sandra replied. "How's it going there, Rick?"

"Just checking now." He shouted back. His Command Wolf was scratching in the sand at its feet, as if it was digging for something. "Found it!" A patch of stonework was exposed below the Command Wolf's paw. "I think this is one of their tunnels."

"Cool beans!" Bekka replied. "Stand back, Rick. Let the professionals handle this."

The Command Wolf skipped out of the way as the trio of Hedigunners crawled over to the exposed patch of stonework. Bekka's Zoid dug is claws into the gap between the stones, then began digging. "This definitely looks like it!" She shouted. "Come on, you two, let's dig!" The other two Heldigunners dug into the stonework, quickly vanishing underground.

"They're in." Sel reported. "We can't track them from here, but we need to make sure we're ahead of them."

"So let's keep moving." Sandra finished. "I want to be there as soon as possible."

Within minutes they could see the temple itself. Looking down from a slight rise, they could see it spread out just as Rick had described it. A four-sided stepped pyramid, modeled on ones from humanity's distant past before they even arrived on Zi dominated the landscape. Several smaller ruined buildings lay around it, but none were as complete as the temple itself. A long stone causeway extended out from the front of the pyramid, before vanishing off into the sand about a kilometer away, while a pair of ornate stone heads guarded the stairs up the front of the temple. There was no sign of enemy Zoids or defenses, probably to maintain the illusion that this place was an abandoned ruin.

"They say that when humans first arrived on this planet, this area was far less desolate." Sandra replied. "At least I hope it was. I'd feel like a right tool building all this in the middle of the desert."

"This is pretty impressive." Matt said.

"Right. Let's blow it up." Rick finished.

"Do we have a plan?" Sandra asked.

"Yes." Sel replied. "You and I will close in and attack at close range. Matt and Rick will provide cover fire and close in if needed to back us up. Vic will hang back to snipe any Zoids that emerge and then close in with the others."

"That works for me. It's pretty much a variant on our standard plan." Sandra said.

"Really?" Sel replied, surprised. "I thought your standard plan was to ruin around screaming until you somehow managed to kill the enemy."

There was a long pause. "She's got us there." Rick admitted.

"Fine." Sandra said. "You got us good. Any questions?"

"What's a Ziggurat?" Vic offered.

Fine. Another conversation mugged by Vic. "Let's go." She looked at the pair of them. "And keep those cameras on. Maybe we can con some sort of reward out of someone for biffing A-X's main base."

The Liger and Darkhorn charged towards the pyramid, remaining wary for any sign of a counterattack. Despite this, they were surprised at the first sign they saw; a pair of weapons turrets, each consisting of a cannon and a pair of rocket launchers, emerging from the top of the two Stoneheads.

"What the frelling hell-" Sandra began, and then broke off as one of the turrets opened fire on her. The Liger leaped sideways, the rockets flying past it and impacting into the desert sand. Next to her, Sel's Darkhorn opened fire on one of the turrets. The shots from the beam vulcan traced a line of holes up the side of the stonehead before hitting the turret itself. A shot form the beam cannon finished the job, the turret exploding.

"Care to be a little more careful with our archeological heritage?" Sandra asked.

"When it's not shooting at me, I will." Sel replied.

A pair of beams shot over the pair of them, taking out the other turret. Turning back, Sandra could see Rick's Command Wolf standing on the hill behind them. "Well, they probably know we're here by now."

-----

"Well?" Ebonflak asked, looking down from his throne. He was wearing his uniform, although without the cape and shoulderpads, and with pink bunny slippers in place of his normal boots. "What is happening, Major?"

"I do apologize for your being awoken so early, my lord." He shouted over the booming sirens. "But it does appear that a group of ignorant outsiders are attacking our base." As if to prove his point, there was a loud explosion from outside that shook the room. "While we should be relatively safe inside our subterranean lair, it is possible that these attackers could eventually penetrate our defences, my lord."

"I see." Ebonflak replied. "Very well then. Use all available resources to repel their attack."

"Yes, my lord." He replied, and left.

Briskly walking through the subterranean base, he descended to the main Zoid hanger inside the base. Numerous pilots were already scurrying around, climbing into their Zoids and making them ready for battle. In amongst the small attack Zoids, three machines stood out. Besides his own Greatsaber, he could see Taro's Saber Tiger being made ready, its leg still being repaired. Further back he could see the massive black, red and gold form of D'Allevera's Iron Kong being made ready for combat.

"What's the situation?" He asked as he walked towards his Zoid.

"We've got more details" Taro replied, following him. "There's a Darkhorn and a Shield Liger outside the temple proper, with a Deadborder and a Command Wolf supporting them. The Command Wolf is one of the newer models with the heavy beam cannons. One of our patrols is missing and it's likely that they were taken out by the attackers."

"I see." He replied. "It's a rather small force. I suspect they're trying to retrieve the hostages rather then mount an all-out assault. Nonetheless, we must eliminate them. Nobody is meant to know the location of this base."

"How could they know?" Taro asked.

"I have my suspicions." He replied, and then climbed into the Greatsaber's cockpit. "Captain D'Allevera, I want you to lead the second wave men out of the bay. We will follow you."

"Me?" he replied, his nervous-looking face showing through the tinted-red visor of his helmet.

"Yes, you." John sternly replied.

-----

The Shield Liger bounded behind one of the stoneheads, firing its cannons at a turret that had popped out of the temple proper. "Damn, where are they getting all the guns from?" She muttered. "Rick! Can you see anything from up there?"

"Let's see…" Rick replied. "I've got another turret on the next corner that I can get from here and-" he stopped, then shouted. "Behind you, Sandra!"

The Liger turned to see the sand behind it shifting, as if something were moving below it. As she watched, the ground opened up, revealing a gaping hole in the ground. An elevator rode up to fill the hole left behind, carrying a load of Demantis Zoids on it.

"Tool." She swore, and ran. The Liger sprinted across the front of the temple as the Dimatis group all opened fire at once. For the most part, the shots went wide all around her as the Zoid used its speed to evade their fire, however a few of them hit armour on the back and side. Just when Sandra thought she'd gotten away with it, however, several shots hit the stonework of the temple under her Liger's foot. The Zoid slipped then slid down the side of the temple, landing in a heap at the base.

Sandra shook her head and checked the systems status. Nothing seemed to be broken, and all Spud's systems seemed to be functioning more-or-less normally. Looking up, however, she saw that this couldn't last. The Dimantis group were advancing towards her as a single menacing line, making oddly disturbing mechanical chirping noises.

Suddenly, their line exploded with Zoids flying in all directions. Sel's Darkhorn smashed through them, crushing or smashing Zoids as it went. The massive dark Zoid skidded around to face its opponents, throwing a couple of Dimantis that were still clinging to it off. Her Darkhorn's beam gattling whirred to life, spraying bullets across the horde of approaching Zoids, cutting many of them down.

"Nice work." Sandra said and whistled."

"That didn't seem too hard." Sel replied.

Before Sandra could add anything, there was a thunderous roaring sound from behind the row of wrecked Zoids. A massive, black, gold and red Iron Kong soared out of the subterranean bay, propelled by twin pillars of flame from its shiny gold booster pack on its back.

"Hoo boy." Sandra muttered. "This just got a lot harder."

"Matt, Rick! Get down here now!" Sel shouted through the communicator. "We have an Iron Kong down here, along with further enemy reinforcements."

"Allready on our way!" Rick shouted.

"Munky." Vic added. "Flying Pimp-Munky"

The Kong landed, crushing a pair of wrecked Dimantis underneath it. Behind it, a squad of Diloforce emerged from the lift. "Surrender now." The Kong's pilot hissed. "And I may spare your lives."

"Tempting offer." Sandra replied, before thumbing the trigger on the Shield Liger's missiles. The two launchers popped out form the Liger's flanks and opened up on the Iron Kong, as Sel did the same with the Darkhorn's cannons. The Kong's thrusters fired gain, boosting it sideways away from their fire. Sel's rounds took out a pair of Diloforce, while the missiles veered off, spreading themselves across the landscape while trying to follow the Kong.

"Run!" Sel shouted as her Darkhorn charged straight at the Diloforce mob.

"Whatever." Sandra replied. Putting the Liger's shield up, she bounced several shots off before simply leaping on a pair of the small Zoids. Next to her, Sel's Darkhorn plowed through several more, before being hit in the side by a volley of missiles. The massive dinosaur Zoid staggered but remained upright.

Looking up, the pair of them could see the Iron Kong hanging off the side of the pyramid, looming over the pair of them. "Now we're in trouble." Sel muttered, looking at the advancing group of Diloforce Zoids.

"Any ideas?" Sandra replied.

Before Sel could say anything, an explosion tore through the upper half of the temple, battering the Iron Kong and sending it reeling back. Another pair of beams struck it in the shoulder, knocking it off the side of the temple. The Kong crashed into the side of the temple, then rolled down, landing in a heap on the ground before3 slowly staggering to its feet.

"Not bad." Sandra muttered.

There was a loud explosion right near her. Whipping her head around, she could see a Diloforce next to her cockpit, collapsing as if it had been shot. When it hit the ground, she could see the large hole in its side.

"You maniac!" She shouted into the communicator. "You could have hit me!"

"But I didn't." Vic replied, then grinned.

"She's got a point there." Rick added as his Command Wolf ran past her mech, firing its cannons as it went.

"How are you two doing?" Matt asked as his Zoid stamped past, firing the twin gravity cannons at the Iron Kong. The Kong took a hit on its left shoulder, shattering the missile targeting system mounted there, while the other one went wide and contributed to the damage done to the temple. In return, the Kong leaped backwards, firing a shot from its shoulder cannon at the Deadborder.

"Uh, not bad." She turned to face the Kong. "Sandra, I'm going to try and bring this guy down. You and Rick deal with the little guys."

"Oh sure. Hog all the glory. See if I care." Sandra said, dripping sarcasm off every word. She really didn't mind; better they took care of the Iron Kong then her. Opening Spud's throttle up, she ran across the line of fire of the Diloforces, replying with the back cannon turret. So far things were going well. They could almost hold this up a little longer.

Now it was all in Beka, Bob and Alex's hands.

"Incoming!" She heard Rick shout. Without stopping to think about it, she slewed the Liger to the left as a massive energy beam shot past her, obliterating one of the stoneheads.

"What the frelling hell was that, Rick?" She shouted back.

"Bad news." Rick replied. "There's a pair of Saber Kitties that have just joined the party. One Great Saber, and one with a big-arse beam cannon on its back."

"That's the attackers from yesterday!" Sel interjected.

"Good. So at least we know we're in the right place!" Sandra replied. She turned the Liger around and found herself face-to-face with the Greatsaber. The two Zoids glared at each other, both of them snarling.

"Why is it that I always find myself facing some tool with another big cat?" Sandra asked herself.

"Your attack on us was brave but ultimately futile." The Saber pilot replied. "Surrender now and live."

"Live? A-X?" Sandra replied. "Yeah, right. I think I'll take my chances with fighting"

-----

Deep inside the subterranean Zoid hanger, away from the bustle of machines being made ready for battle, a pair of technicians were listening intently to a wall. It wasn't an easy thing to do in a busy hanger like this, and certainly not while there was a battle raging outside. Still they were trying.

"There it is again." Frank, the first one said. "Can you hear it?"

"Yeah…" Joe, the second tech replied. "It's a kind of scratching noise."

"Scratching?" Frank asked.

"Yeah." He replied. "Which is weird, because we're underground."

"You don't know what's around here." Frank said. "I mean, there are miles of underground passages and nobody knows where they go."

"These walls are solid." Jose said, tapping on the stonework. "They've been here for hundreds of years. Nothing's getting in here."

Then, just to prove him wrong, the wall collapsed.

Through the dust and debris, a trio of sinister, squad and heavily weaponed black shapes appeared. The first two were sleek and low-lying; the third sported a massive cannon on its back. The three surveyed the bay with sinister, glowing green eyes, as if they were searching for prey.

-----

"We're in!" Bekka shouted form the cockpit of her Heldigunner as she surveyed the expansive Zoid bay. "Looks like Rick's plan worked after all."

"This looks like their main hanger." Bob commented as his Heldigunner followed hers in.

"Either that or a very big wine cellar." Alex replied. "An Industrial-styled subterranean Zoid hanger. It reminds me of home."

"Let's go." Bob stated. "We need to find the hostages."

"Yeah, but let's do a little damage first." Bekka replied, then sniggered.

"Oh dear." Alex began. "You've got that 'hey, let's break stuff' tone in your voice again. That usually results in something bad happening."

"And why not?" She replied. "I was having a perfectly fine day right up until they attacked us yesterday morning. So I think a little payback is in order." Her Heldigunner turned to a row of parked Zoids and opened fire with both its top and side-mounted cannons.

"Shouldn't we stop her?" Bob asked.

"Hey, she's doing her job and blowing off steam at the same time. Let her. It may be theraputic." Alex replied.

"True."

Bekka's Heldiguner turned back to face the other two Zoids. "I feel much better now. Let's go."

The two Heldigunners turned to look at each other. "She needs to cut down her sugar intake." Alex commented.

"I don't care anymore that I'm not assigned as the support gunner." Bob replied. "So long as it's not her."

-----

"Then during third form, I became the head of the fencing team." Ebonflack stated to the camera. "From there, I-" He was cut off by a loud explosion that rocked the room, flakes of stonework falling form the ceiling. "How tiresome."

"We can edit that out." Larry replied.

"Fine. Where was I?"

"The high school fencing team." Larry replied. Reg, standing next to him, rolled his eyes.

"Oh yes." He said, but was cut off by a large monitor being lowered from the ceiling. As he glared at it, the face of a frightened looking technician appeared, the main Zoid bay in flames behind him.

"Please forgive me for the interruption, Lord Ebonflak." The technician began. "However it appears that we may have been infiltrated by the ignorant masses who are attacking our base. Number of Zoids are inside the temple and are attacking our Zoid bay itself. The situation is pretty bad down here, sir."

"I see. Well, do whatever you need to contain the situation."

"Sir?" The technician replied.

"Did I not make myself perfectly clear?"

"Umm…" He nervously stammered. "No sir. I mean, yes sir. Perfectly clear sir."

"Very good." He said, and then picked up a remote control. Pressing a few buttons, the screen changed to show John Shepherd. "Major, what is the situation outside?"

"We're holding them off for the moment." He replied. "However, these attackers are very skilled and very well coordinated. There's also a sniper who is slowly picking off our forces. I'm very fortunate that I've made it this far."

"I see." He said. "Very well. Hold your position for a little longer. I will deal with these attackers personally."

"Personally?" He asked. "Is that wise, commander?" A nearby explosion rocked the screen.

"I have a surprise in store for these ignorant attackers that will show them the true power of our secret ideological organization!" He stood as he spoke. "They will regret attacking us for the rest of their pathetically brief existences!"

"Are you getting this all?" Larry hissed. "It's good stuff."

"Y-yes, my commander. I will try to hold them off as long as possible." The screen shut down, then retracted back into the ceiling."

"Radnor!" he shouted.

"Yes, my lord?" Rador replied, appearing as always from behind his throne.

"Have my personal Zoid made ready to deploy immediately! We must teach these fools a lesson!"

"Yes master." Radnor said, rubbing his hands together. "I will do it immediately, master." He vanished behind the throne.

"You three are to stay here." He continued, pointing to the three documentary makers. "I will return shortly."

"Where are you going?" Larry asked.

"To the dénouement." Ebonflak replied as he stepped down from his throne.

"The dénouement?" Larry asked.

"It means 'finishing off the good guys'" he replied.

-----

Sandra yanked the Liger's controls hard to the right as another beam shot past her. She cursed the pilots of the two Saber Tigers for their effectiveness. The more mobile Greatsaber was constantly blocking her movement, while the Strengthened Saber Tiger, which appeared to have a damaged leg, was remaining behind cover and firing. She couldn't turn on one without exposing herself to the other.

Everyone else had their own problems to deal with. Matt was still trying to put down the Iron Kong, while Rick and Sel were trying to weed out the remaining attack Zoids. Vic had been sniping off random enemy Zoids and had made a few shots at nailing the Saber Tiger, but with no apparent success. Now she'd gone silent, which lead Sandra to believe that she was out of ammo.

None of them had suffered severe damage yet. However, she could see that Spud's armour was wearing very thin, and she suspected the same could be said for everyone else. On the upside, she suspected the Kong and the two tigers were in the same way.

A nearby Diloforce collapsed as Vic's Gunsniper leapt out of seemingly nowhere, bringing the smaller Zoid down with its toe Claws. "Hey!" Rick shouted. "You vulched my kill!"

"Munky." Vic replied as her Gunsniper scurried away.

"Wha?" Rick asked, then turned around to see the Iron Kong come sailing through the air straight at him. The Command Wolf broke into a run, firing its turret cannons at the Kong as it went. A stray shot struck one of the boosters, initially not doing much to it.

Then the engine gave out. Deprived of life, the two-hundred ton Zoid simply fell out of the sky, trailing smoke behind it. Sandra watched as it plummeted to the ground… only to smack straight into the damaged Saber Tiger. The smaller Zoid simply collapsed as the Kong hit it, its right foreleg and beam cannon shattering under the weight of the impact.

"Niche shooting there, Rick." Sandra said to him, grinning.

"I, uh, planned it that way." Rick replied.

"Of course you did." Sandra finished. "Now there's just this one tool to deal with." She turned Spud back to face the Greatsaber. "Let's go, kitty."

The Greatsaber charged straight at her, its back-mounted missile launcher popping up to fire the remaining payload at her. Throwing the shield up, she blocked the worst of the attack. Instead of firing back, she ran straight at the Saber and then leaped, the Liger's claws out. The Saber did the same, leaping at her Zoid.

There was a brief instant as the two zooids passed, both digging into each other's armour, before coming down to a jarring landing. Sandra, however wasn't finished. No sooner had her liger hit the ground then she opened up with the tail-mounted beam cannons, peppering the Greatsaber's rear and flanks with fire. The black and red Zoid stumbled, then collapsed.

"Ha!" She shouted. "Nobody ever remembers the tail guns."

"I think that's it." Sel said. "Matt?"

"The Kong's limping off, but the red Saber Tiger is done for." He replied. "Unless anyone else pops out of the ground, I think that all we're waiting on is the rescue."

As if to prove a point, a section of the causeway immediately in front of the pyramid slid aside, revealing an empty bay. Slowly, a Zoid rose from the depths. Like the Deadborder, it was a Tyrannosaur but there was no resemblance between the two. The new Zoid was hunched forwards, with strangely oversized feet and a large horn protruding form its forehead. It was a Godkaiser, a somewhat unusual Zoid.

Unlike most other Godkaisers, this one wasn't the normal white and purple colour scheme, instead being a more ominous dark grey colour. A pair of large cannons were mounted on its back, similar (albeit smaller) to those used by the Gojulas. And a pair of pods stuck out from its knees.

"Nice call, Matt." Sandra stated, dryly.

"You impudent fools thought you could defeat us." The Godkaiser's pilot began, speaking over his Zoid's PA system. "Now you face the real power of A-X."

"Hit him now while he's gloating!" Sel shouted. The Deadborder and Darkhorn both opened fire on the Godkaiser, which was quickly obscured by the smoke from their hits. "Did we get it?"

"We must have…" Matt replied.

The smoke cleared, revealing the Godkaiser standing there, unharmed a brilliant orange field surrounding it like the Shield liger's own energy shield. Its pilot was laughing. "Don't you see?" he began/ "This is no ordinary Godkaiser!"

"Yeah. Check out the knees." Vic muttered.

"Now, for the crime of your own ignorance, you will pay the ultimate price!"

-----

Ebonflak had left the really big screen on so that Reg, Jerry and Larry could see the footage he was getting for them. Larry was eating up every minute of it. He loved this sort of stuff. The thrill of battle, the intense camera angles, the rush of the action. It was all great material. And the best thing was, he wasn't anywhere near it.

In fact, if not for the weird guy breathing over his shoulder, it'd be perfect.

"So, what do you think of my work?" the weird guy asked. He was bald, hunchbacked and indefinably disturbing looking. "Excellent, isn't it?"

"Er… yes." Larry replied, nervously edging away from the man.

"Isn't that Sandra's Liger?" Reg asked. "The damage looks familiar."

"I think it might be…" Larry replied. "Hey, baldy! What did you say he was piloting again?"

"My greatest creation, the Giga God Kaiser!" He replied, with some degree of pride.

"What's a Giga God Kaiser?" Reg asked.

"Probably a Godkaiser with some added hyperbole" Reg added. "Is it just me, or is there some shouting outside?"

Before anyone could answer, the door to the throne room exploded inwards. The four of them were sent sprawling against the throne, the really big screen falling from the roof and shattering on the ground. Shaking his head clear, Reg looked up to see a shape slowly advancing through the dust and debris. It was a Heldigunner, hissing menacingly as it moved. Another two were behind them.

"See, I told you this was the place!" The Heldigunner's female pilot shouted at the other two.

"Who…" Larry began nervously. "Who are you?"

The cockpit of the lead Zoid opened and the pilot stepped out, posing on the nose of her Zoid. He instantly recognized her as the tattooed pilot from yesterday, the one whom Rick was very friendly with (Damn him and his luck). She pulled a large pistol out of her hip-holster, and aimed it at the bald guy's head. "Don't move, weirdo."

He nodded in agreement, sweating and twitching profusely while trying not to blink or stare at the laser dot between his eyes. This only served to make him cross-eyed.

"Cool beans!" She finished. "We're here to rescue you!"

"Rescue us?" Larry asked.

"Yes, Larry, rescue us." Reg replied. "Rescue us from the evil terrorists who destroyed half a town get to us."

"But… but..." Larry replied. "But the fight footage…"

"We can ged da stuff from Sandra, Rick and Vic lader." Jerry replied as he walked past, camera in hand. "Besides, I'be sdill god all da foodage from da inderviews."

"So hurry up and get in so we can get out of here." The pilot of one of the Heldigunners shouted as he opened the canopy.

The third one, which he noted had a large cannon mounted on its back, followed suit. "I'm afraid to say that this is only an economy-class rescue package. So it's a tight squeeze and you don't get an in-flight movie or meal."

"Tight squeeze?" Larry asked himself, then looked up at the woman with the gun. Ah well, he thought. I guess I'd better go along with them. I suppose that we should get out of here now. And I'm sure that I could live with a 'tight squeeze' in the cockpit with that pilot. He grinned to himself, then looked up at her - only to see that she was helping Reg into the cockpit of her Zoid.

"Hurry up!" Shouted the pilot of the second Zoid. Looking at him, Larry could see that he was a very large, angry looking man. In fact, the same one who had punched out Jerry earlier. And hel looked like he barely fit into the Heldigunner's cockpit as it was. "NOW!"

"Yes sir!" he shouted and scrambled into the Zoid's cockpit, squeezing himself in between the side of the command couch and the wall of the cockpit. The pilot shot him an evil glare over his shoulder.

"And don't touch anything!"

-----

Jerry clambered into the cockpit of the Heldigunner, clambering his way around the command couch and eventually finding a perch looking over the pilot's shoulder. "You al good back there?" the long-haired pilot asked.

"Yeah." He replied.

"Cool." The pilot closed the canopy and activated the sensory and monitor systems. The entire cockpit was bathed in an eerie green glow from the sensors and various instruments. "Name's Alex Senior, by the way."

"Derry Bay." He sniffled out.

"Nice too meetcha." He replied as the Zoid turned around. "And this is my Heldigunenr. It doesn't have a name, though." He smirked. "You could call it DHI-11/CU, but I think that's a little unwieldy. So usually I call it Heldy."

"Ride." He muttered. The other two Heldigunners slithered out ahead of it, disappearing back into the hallway. As soon as they were out of the way, Alex turned and followed. "Mind if I film a liddle in here?"

"Not at all…" He said. "Only restrict your shooting to what you can see out the viewscreens. For various reasons I don't want my face on TV."

"Danks." Jerry began, and started filming. This wasn't just his usual gun camera like he'd been using with Sandra and the others. This was the real thing.

A loud explosion rocked the three of them, peppering the cockpit with debris falling form the roof. "What just happened?" Alex shouted.

"We have a problem." Bob replied. "A substantial section of the complex has just collapsed." Jerry was certain he could hear some muffled shouting behind him.

"That was probably my fault." Bekka said. "Sorry. I, uh, probably got a little carried away back there."

There was a round of general muttering. "Fine. Next time, Bekka, break stuff on the way out, not in." Alex said, rubbing his face with his hands. Jerry noticed that he wasn't wearing a neurohelmet, but didn't think anything of it.

"Hey, it's not a problem." Bekka replied. "We're in Heldys. We can make our own way out."

-----

Ebonflak looked at the Zoids before him, and sneered. The poor, weak, pathetic fools had tried to attack him several times, and each time they had been repulsed. The Giga God Kaiser's energy shield was strong enough to repel any attack they may make on him. The fact that he had two of them - one mounted in each knee - was an added bonus. He could keep his shield up longer then the Liger could, and had an emergency spare if his went out of action.

So far, he'd used a strategy of periodically dropping his shield, firing the main cannons then putting it back up as quickly as possible, alternating which generator he used each time. This allowed him to fire back at his enemies with little risk of being hared himself.

The Shield Liger raised its own shield and changed at him, the Command Wolf following it. "Clever." He thought out loud. "But not clever enough!" The Liger crashed into his own shield, using its shield to neutralize his. The Command Wolf leaped over it, posed to strike.

Before it could, however, he counter-attacked it with the Godkaiser's modified claws. Extending out form the arms then energizing in a manner similar to the claws used by the Liger Zero and Shadow Fox, the Godkaiser struck the leaping command Wolf on the side, sending it sprawling to the ground. The Wolf crashed and lay there, the armour on its right side shredded.

A beep from his sensors alerted him to a new attacker. The Gunsniper was running across the ruined front of the temple, opening fire in his unprotected rear with its considerable arsenal. Casually batting the Liger aside, he opened up with the Godkaiser's various flank-mounted weapons. Several hits staggered the Gunsniper, tripping it over and leaving it in a pile in the dirt.

"Brave, but ultimately foolish." He said with a grin as he activated the second shield. "Does anyone else feel like challenging me?"

Before any of them could launch another futile assault, the ground beneath his Zoid began to shake and shift. The Godkaiser staggered in place, trying to retain its footing. Then, much to his surprise, a Heldigunner broke through the surface under his right foot.

"What is this?" He asked.

"Gotcha, sucker!" The Heldigunner's female pilot shouted back, opening fire with the quad-cannon at near point-blank range. The shots tore into the underside of the Zoid, damaging the connections between the right leg and the torso. Checking his status board, he could see that the attack had damaged the hip joint, reducing his mobility.

The Godkaiser staggered back, only to blunder into another Heldigunner that had emerged behind it. The second Heldigunner opened fire, the shots ripping up armour along the Godkaiser's rear, damaging the cannons mounted on the back of the left leg. Fortunately, this attack didn't reduce his mobility any.

The Godkaiser glanced back at the Heldigunenr, before returning its focus to the earlier attackers. Despite the damage, his shield was still up. All he had to do was get away form the Heldigunners. Unfortunately, something was obscuring his view of the battlefield. It was a large-bore cannon that was effectively shoved up the Godkaiser's nose.

"Smile." The Heldigunenr pilot said. Ebonflak twisted the controls hard to the right, accompanied by the sound of the damaged right leg screaming in protest. The Heldigunner fired, the shot narrowly missing the head and instead striking the twin cannon mounting, tearing it apart. The Godkaiser collapsed on its side, its weapons a smoking wreck.

Struggling with the controls, he managed to bring the Zoid to its feet. The three Heldigunners circled around it, hissing angrily. "A brave effort." He began. "But did you really think that the likes of you could beat me?" Even though his systems were a mess, the two shields were still working. He still had a chance. All he needed now was an opportunity.

His communicator beeped to life, with Jessica's somewhat battered but otherwise insanely cheerful face on it. "Hail Ebonflak!" She shouted with her usual degree of mindless enthusiasm.

"Indeed." He replied. 'What is your status, Agent Jessica?"

"After an amazing escape and daring cross-country adventure with all the Gojulas bite bite and the Gunbluster bang bang and all the screaming hot mad red Deathsaurers ouch pain death until your loyal agent Jessica has finally made it back to base, spurred on by their devotion and loyalty to the almighty great dearest lord Ebonflack and are ready to fulfill your latest plan or if it's okay with you maybe lie down and die quietly somewhere and oh by the way we're sorry about the camera team only there was a big mess with all the smoke and the guns and the fire and the jamming and the screaming and the pain and the ouch and Menchi got blasted by an unknown assailant in another Zeekdober who may or may not have been a very confused Agent Monica only its not really her fault if it was due to all the chaos and the confusing and the fire and the shouting and all that so may we humbly please please be allowed to go out and get it right this time?"

"Actually I have a new mission for the pair of you right now." He began.

"Really?" Jessica began. "What great service could I perform for my beloved Lord Ebonflak?"

"Due to circumstances beyond even my control, I have been forced to launch a strategic withdrawal." He replied. "Your task is to delay the forces of the ignorant masses while I regroup our forces."

"Of course!" Jessica replied. "I, your fanatically loyal agent Jessica will gladly lay down my life to protect you from these ignorant masses who would dare strike at you! I will fight to the very last of my being to protect you! Even should be-"

He switched the communicator off, leaving her to rant to herself. Keeping its shield up, the Godkaiser stumbled backwards, even as their Zeekdobers raced past it to launch their futile attack. He had to smile to himself.

That kind of loyalty was hard to come by, but very rewarding when you found it.

-----

Sel had been as surprised as anyone about the sudden turn of events. Her three subordinates had suddenly emerged from out of nowhere and badly damaged the Godkaiser that had, up until seconds ago, been defying them. Now it was backing off, while a pair of rather combat-worn Zeekdobers were advancing on them.

Her communicator beeped with an incoming message. Opening it up, she saw Bob with one of the documentary crew - the sleazy-looking guy with the ponytail who'd she'd instantly disliked - squashed into the back of the Heldigunner's cockpit behind him. "Mission accomplished, captain." Bob reported. "We have retrieved the hostages and done a considerable amount of damage to the enemy's infrastructure in the process."

Sel turned to look at the pyramid, who's external structure was already half in ruins. "I can believe that." She replied.

"Captain?"

"Good work. Fall back for the moment. We'll clear up here."

"Yes captain." The three Heldigunners scurried past them, hiding behind their larger compatriots.

"You're not angry at them for endangering the hostage's lives?" Sandra asked. "They did try to bum steer that Godkaiser."

"Yes, but it worked." Sel replied. "And it gave us the break we needed. Hold on..."

"What's up?"

"I have a large object inbound form the south." Sel replied. "Airborne too."

"What the..." Sandra replied. Above them, the sky went dark as the massive form of a Whale King blotted out the sun. It hovered over the battlefield, slowly descending, its various gun turrets trained on them. "Who's is that?"

"Not ours." Sel replied. "Look."

The front ramp opened up, to reveal a black and red Greatsaber and a very battered Iron Kong standing inside the bay, their weapons trained on Sel and Sandra. The Godkaiser limped up the ramp, then turned back to face them. "We will meet again! Mark my words, we will meet again!" The pilot called out as the bay closed. With no reason to wait any longer, the Whale King took off.

"What was that all about?" Sel asked.

"How..." Sandra replied. "How... lame!"

"Lame?" Rick asked.

"Yes, lame!" Sandra shouted back. "The villain leaps into his ship and flies off, swearing vengeance as he goes so he can reappear in the sequel! This is... so lame!"

"Well..." Rick began. "Hey! Those two Zeekdobers are still there!"

As one, the eight Zoids turned to face the two Zeekdobers. Sandra could swear that the two Zeekdobers instantly went from their usual fierce predatory snarls that were moulded into their faces to rather terrified looking whimpers. Of course, she could have been just imagining it.

-----

Bed Springs

The Wastelands

1500 Hours

In the end, it had all worked out. After the rescue and the A-X retreat, they'd scoured the ruins of the base. Fortunately, their Guysack and their footage had all survived intact. More importantly, Reg thought, their interview with Ebonflak and all the footage they'd shot inside the A-X headquarters had survived. He was sure that, eventually, it could prove useful to someone.

After a long talk with Sel, they'd come to an agreement. Jerry had handed over any footage he'd shot of them and their Zoids. All three of them had agreed not to mention what they had seen either. As far as he, Larry, Jerry were concerned, the five of them were never there. Sandra, Rick and Vic had mounted the whole rescue operation on their own. Reg felt that it was a fair price to pay for being rescued. Jerry felt it was a fair price to pay for not being hit by Bob again.

As a finisher to the shoot, Sandra had taken the three of them back to their 'home', a run down house in the run down town of Bed Springs. Besides giving the three of them an interesting look into their private lives, it'd given them a unique opportunity to see what Sandra's sort of people - what amounted to hired killers, if you wanted to see it like that - did on their days off.

Sel had made one allowance for filming her men. For one afternoon only, Jerry could film them in action. He couldn't say who they were and where they were from, although Reg was going to improvise some narration that indicated that they were locals, or members of another mercenary group. Still, he hadn't expected what would come next.

There was a small baseball field at the back of Sandra's house. They'd taken to the field in two teams of four, apparently picked from both groups. All of them wore semi-official looking uniforms; Reg suspected that they didn't represent real teams as such, but had been designed for the specific players by a third party. Rick had joked something about them begin a gift.

"Having fun?" Reg asked Jerry as he watched the game, filming it as it went.

"Sure." Jerry replied. 'Its relatively peaceful, its fun to watch and there's minimal chance of me getting hurt." He added. "So its all good."

Larry just muttered something. He'd been in a perpetual sulk since they'd gotten back from Laswegaz. Reg suspected that it was about loosing the footage form the Godkaiser, or loosing the footage he'd coerced jerry into shooting of Sel's men (Particularly Bekka, he'd noticed.) Either way, he wasn't happy.

"New innings." Jerry observed. "Wonder who they'll start with?" Bob walked up to the pitcher's mound, flexing and stretching as he warmed up. Vic casually stepped over to the plate, carrying the bat over her back. "This should be good."

Bob threw. Vic swung. Larry pitched over backwards, a red mark on his forehead.

"You're right. It was."

-----

Thanks to Zogster for help with Jessica's dialogue


	33. Fight Club Round One

Bed Springs

The Wastelands

0730 Hours

For Rick, one of the many pleasures of living in the wastelands and being his own boss was that he didn't need to wake up early in the morning. He liked staying up late and then rising at a comfortable hour, like ten or eleven. So Sandra shouting loudly in his ear to wake up at seven thirty was the last thing he wanted.

"Wha?" He muttered. "What?" She was standing there, looming over him, fully dressed in what he called her 'arse kicking' gear. It was mainly black, topped off with a longcoat that she used to hide at least two pistols and Tomy alone knew how many spare clips for each. He'd seen her swapping them on the run. It was scary.

"Get your lazy date out of bed!" She shouted.

"Why?" He muttered back. It was too early for death threats.

"It's Market Day, you big tool!" She snapped.

Market day? Aww… crap. Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap on a crap cracker. He sat bolt upright in the bed. "Give me a couple of minutes." He muttered.

"Hurry. I'm not missing out because of you." She stormed out of the room.

Three minutes later, Rick stumbled downstairs to the kitchen pulling on his jacket as he went. Sandra and Vic were already there, Vic nursing a coffee while Sandra loomed near the doorway. "Sorry." He muttered. "I didn't know it was today."

"She told you last week." Vic said, eyes not moving from her coffee.

"Well, yeah… I must have forgot."

"And reminded you last night." She continued.

"Well… yeah."

"And we both went to bed early." Vic finished.

"um… well… ah hell. I forgot that too."

"Right." Sandra said. "Recriminations will come later. For now, let's get moving. If I've missed out on something good, then you die for it."

Rick gulped nervously. He could tell this was going to be a long day.

-----

While it was usually a wasteland, once a month, Bed Springs came alive. On that one day a month, various traders would congregate on the town and set up shop. For that one day, people from all around would descend on to the town to buy and sell. Naturally, a large part of this was arms sales; many dealers would bring their wares to Bed Springs, vying for the ever-popular mercenary dollar.

Sandra, Rick and Vic always went to the market if they were in town while it was on. While Zoids were somewhat self-maintaining, they still did need replacements for many components that could become worn or damaged. Weapons were particularly an issue; weapons needed to be overhauled or replaced if they were damaged in combat, and many types needed ammo.

Besides all that, Rick, Vic and Sandra all had various ideas for upgrading their Zoids, and the market was probably the best place to start.

The section dedicated to Zoids was one of the largest by the sheer fact of the merchandise it was selling. Everywhere one looked, they could see groups of Zoids, lined up on display by various dealers. The joke went that if you wanted to find it, you could find it here. While not strictly true, it was close enough.

Sandra strolled along a row of Zoids, checking out the various models on display. A grossly over-priced Gul Tiger sat at the end of one row, its original packing crate behind it. She smiled to herself; that particular Zoid had been there for as long as she'd been coming here. She suspected its current owner had paid far more then he should have for it and now was desperate to recoup his losses.

Rounding a corner, she passed a collection of rather beaten-looking, but still functional Red mutants. A Tarantualon, Terrared, Hellrunner and Slime, all rather weather-beaten but polished until their silver bodies shone were proudly lined up. If she was desperate to build up an army, they would be good, she thought. As they were, she could wait.

"Can I interest you in a Spinefin?" a voice behind her asked. Turning, she could see a man standing by a silver, grey and green Spinefin. She noticed numerous panels on the Zoid were hanging open with equipment literally spilling out, and that several of its weapons, and indeed part of one leg were missing.

"Umm…"

"It's in very good condition. Just some wear." He said, gesturing to the body. The shiny silver finish was badly worn and flaking.

"I'm not sure." She said. "It looks a little beaten."

"There may be some parts missing, but otherwise I'm sure its fine." He replied.

"No thanks." Sandra replied. "Oh, and I think you should have your eyes checked."

She walked of, leaving him behind. Unfortunately, she'd had no luck in finding what she was really after. It was one of those items that had, a few years ago, been common and now that she actually needed (and could afford) it, it was stupidly rare and expensive. She turned into another row, still looking.

A Garius and Elephantus, slightly worn but looking far better the many other Zoids she'd seen stood next to a brand new Gravity Saurer and Gravity Saix. She'd heard about these two, but hadn't expected to see them in a place like this so quickly. Both were billed as 'low cost alternatives to lager Zoids.' What she suspected it meant was that they were cheap and did the job they were supposed to, but little else. She looked up at the Gravity Saurer. It was as ugly as sin, she decided, but she couldn't help but be impressed by the row of cannons on its back. "Okay, so it's ugly and packs a punch. I can live with that."

Looking around, she could see that there were more new Zoids around then older ones. A red Blade Liger stood next to a Liger Zero. She walked over to the pair of them. Both had information stands in frond of them advertising them as being the 'latest, coolest and most ultimate Ligers ever.' The hyperbole made no sense, and was clearly designed to appeal to younger idiots with too much cash.

She looked up at the pair of them. Yeah, she thought. Either would make a great upgrade for me. Then again, I can't afford either, and I doubt Spud would ever forgive me if I dumped him for another Zoid. She moved on, passing a display rack of the various Zero armours, and an Evil Pegasus that looked like it had been badly repaired after something heavy had dropped on it.

Turning left (and realising that she was just randomly wandering) she stopped at a row of Guysacks.

"Looking for a new Zoid, ma'am?" A salesman said, suddenly materialising at her side. "Interested in a Guysack?"

"Um…" She began, kind of off-put by his sudden appearance.

"Well don't go any further." He replied. "This little baby has it all. It features a tail-mounted 70mm beam cannon that guaranteed to make any class two Zoid sit up and notice. This is backed up by a pair of 20mm beam cannons, all mounted on a tail turret that gives it exceptional mobility and elevation. Don't get caught out with some guy sneaking up behind you; the Guysack can deal with attackers, no matter where they spring from. Options include a 20mm beam turret and a pair of light beam cannons or long-range energy tanks and your choice of two different head designs. And its two combat claws can shred small Zoids faster then you can imagine."

"Well I'm not really in the market for a small Zoid-"

"Of course you are!" He replied. "The Guysack was voted 'best economy model' by What Zoid magazine! It can cover all your needs! For the price of a Redhorn, you can build a small army of these little guys!" he slapped the side of one of the claws, which promptly fell off.

There was a slight pause. "The claw fell off." She noted, deadpan.

"Easy storage for small hangers!" he replied, not missing a beat. "One of its many innovative design features." She walked off without saying a thing.

She turned a corner, then stopped. Looking around, she couldn't see the usual array of Zoids that she'd been passing in the rest of the market. Had she gotten lost? Or had she wandered into another part of the market by accident? She hoped it wasn't the arts and crafts section. The last thing she wanted was to be beset upon by hippies wanting to fob badly-made baskets onto her.

A quick inspection of the area told her other wise. She'd walked into the world of Zoids apparel. Clothing, magazines, video discs, badges, keychains, pornographic fan-comics or 'doshinji' (an ancient Terran word meaning 'character assassination') about various badly drawn top-heavy young women (purportedly Zoid pilots) and, inexplicably, golf clubs. Great. Tool. Not where she wanted to be.

She walked briskly between stalls. Hopefully she could find a way back to the proper part of the market and find what she was after. If not, she may have just wasted the day. A part of her knew she could just stop and ask for directions, but another part of her didn't want to talk to any of these vendors for any longer then she had to.

The sounds of a battle coming from one stall grabbed her attention as she passed it. Looking back, she could see that it was stacked high with video disks, most of which appeared to be bootlegs. Inside the stall was a grubby, overweight balding man hunched over a small screen and player.

"Excuse-" She began, but he a hand up before she could finish.

"I've been waiting to see this one for ages." He muttered. Sandra craned around to look over his shoulder. The small screen was showing what appeared to be an enclosed arena. The camera work was rather amateur looking, but good enough to give the viewer a good idea what was happening.

Great. She thought. A fan of underground Zoid battles. Just what I need. She had seen footage of such battles. Heck, during her cop days, she'd raided betting rings that were making considerable amounts off them. She hated the idea. Two people smashing their Zoids into each other for cash and so the audience could get their jollies out of watching it.

She was about to leave, when something caught her eye. On the screen, a Darkhorn crashed in to view, smashing into the side of the opposing Lightnig Saix. The opposing Zoid crumpled to the ground, not moving.

"I've seen this girl fight before. She's good." He said, practically dribbling over the screen.

"Girl?" Sandra asked herself.

She could hear the sound of a siren, followed by an announcer calling something out. "Winner… Black Queen." It was all she could get. On the screen, the Zoid's cockpit opened and its pilot stood up, the camera zooming in on her.

She blinked her one good eye. Despite the sleeveless pilot suit and the elaborate patterns painted up her arms, the pilot was definitely Sel.

"Where did you get this?" She shouted, grabbing the man by his collar. "Who shot this? Where was it filmed? How recent is it? Tell me!"

"I-I got it yesterday along with a whole pile of other fights on disk!" He frantically replied, gesturing at his display stands. "It… it's only a week old. Near new!"

"Where was it made?"

"I don't know!" He shouted. "Chronos… somewhere. All the underground arenas are there. They use abandoned industrial lots!"

It made sense to her. Zoids were big and normally hard to conceal, especially when they were fighting each other. The vast industrial wastes of Chronos, a polluted, decaying maze of abandoned factories populated by only the most poor and desperate was probably the best place to hold them. You could loose anything there.

"Where did you get this disk?"

"There's a guy called Frank… I get them from him every week."

"Good." Sandra said. "Now I want to meet this man. I want to meet him and to talk to him. And I want you to arrange it. And I don't want you to rat on me or warn him off or anything like that as I am a very irrational and violent person and could get very, very angry. Do you understand?"

He nodded frantically. Sandra had to smile to herself. Being scarred and having one eye had its advantages. It made you look very intimidating.

"Good." She pulled out her communicator. "Hey, Rick, Vic… Where the frelling hell are you two?"

"Shopping." Rick replied.

"Guns, ammo and baby needs." Vic added.

"The price of CP-22 dual sniper rifles has collapsed. You don't have a Koenig wolf you need to up-arm?"

"Woofguns." There was a snigger.

"Look you two…" She began. "I need to see the pair of you ASAP. I'm in the 'paraphernalia' section in a dodgy pirate disc stall."

"How will we spot it?" Rick asked.

"I'll be there lurking over the owner and seeing how many of his dodgey disks I can put in each of his orifices."

"Messy." Rick said. "There's not going to be any trouble? Any violence and carnage as seems to happen everywhere we go?"

"We can only hope." Vic muttered.

"Naw. I think this should all go well."

"See ya in a bit." Rick replied.

"Oh, Rick, one more thing."

"What?"

"You didn't find any CP-01 sets, did you?"

-----

After arriving, Rick had apologised frantically to Sandra. He'd seen a CP-01 set but hadn't been able to get it because she'd said come to see her immediately, besides which it was grossly over-priced anyways and they probably couldn't afford it and it was being sold by that guy who always added so much extra for everything and had been busted once for selling non-existent Deathstingers anyway.

All this had put Sandra in a mood to kill.

About noon a man arrived at the stand. He fit the owner's description of 'Frank'; fat, sweaty and with a face that looked like it had been squashed somewhat; large jowls, a flat nose and no neck. "Good day, my dear man." He began as he leaned on the stall. "How are the sales of the merchandise going?"

"Well…" He began. "Um, they're going well. I, er, I that is there's a few people who would like to know where you get them from."

"That's a pity." He replied. "As, for various reasons which I'm sure you'll understand, I cannot divulge the name of my supplier, my dear boy." He smiled. "However, I'm sure I can come to some arrangement with them to supply them with merchandise if needed."

"Ah, well, you see, they'd really, really like to know." He said, smiling nervously. "In fact, they're right behind you."

He turned around and managed to look decently startled. Sandra was standing there, her best 'I'm really, really angry and I'm going to take it out on the first thing I come across so you better cooperate or else' look on her face. "Now let me put it this way." She began. "Distributing those disks is profiting form criminal activity. Ergo you are committing a crime. I am a police woman, and a very angry one. So suggest you start talking."

"She's good." Rick added, leaning against the side of the stall. "I'd hate to be in his shoes."

"Some days she scares me." Vic added.

"Really?"

"She's very tall." Vic added, then grinned.

-----

MRI Industrial Complex

Tempus, Chronos

2130 Hours

Captain Zofia looked across the city. From up here, in the cockpit of an Iron Kong perched on top of a building, it appeared to me one massive maze of concrete. If not for the thick haze of smog that hung over it, she could probably see all the way across the city. As it was, she could only see for about a kilometre. A second Iron Kong, piloted by Captain Boris, her partner for this operation, was looming next to hers.

Zofia was often described as angry looking, for no real reason. She was actually quite attractive, tall and nicely proportioned, with long red hair, pale skin and blue, narrow eyes. She certainly didn't look the part of an elite Zoid pilot. Boris, however did. He was a large, muscular man with short-cropped black hair and a permanent snarl.

She checked the various instruments and indicators on her control panel, making sure the newly installed weapons were functional. The pair of them weren't piloting ordinary Kongs; they had been recently upgraded with additional weaponry that a Chronos-based company had begun shipping with new models. Between that and their CP-11 manoeuvre thrusters, they were the functional equivalent of the rare Iron Kong PK. Only without the hot pink paint scheme.

"Hammer squad, report." Zofia barked into the communicator.

"We're in place, commander." The voice on the other end replied. "Waiting for your signal."

"Good." She flicked over to her command frequency. "They're ready Boris. Let's go."

"Good." He grunted out.

The two Kongs fired their thruster packs, leaping into the air. A few seconds later, they crashed down on the roof of the next building along. Running the length of the building, they leaped into the air again, continuing their path across the city.

-----

What had once been one of the MRI factories had over the last few years been completely remodelled. While it appeared to be the same from the outside, its interior had been completely rebuilt. The industrial equipment had been gutted, and replaced with a massive concrete sided, sand-floored arena, sunk into the floor. Several booths overlooked the arena, where a few patrons paid ridiculous amounts to watch the battles live. Numerous cameras, microphones and lights adorned the walls and ceiling, as well as a number of amateur cameramen with hand-helds.

At each end of the arena was a gate, which allowed Zoids to enter and exit the battlefield. Apart from that, the only way out was straight up, going through either the roof or the grimy, almost opaque glass widows that made up a large portion of the ceiling.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" A voice boomed out over the loudspeakers. "Our next fight promises to be an interesting one, for it is a different format to usual." The far end cage opened, revealing a bright yellow Zaber Fang. "In the red corner, we have Jacko Reed, piloting his Zaber Fang, Chopper." The Zoid walked into the arena, snarling loudly.

"And in the blue corner, we have the team of Ben "Mad Dog" Armae and Nathor Undiez, both piloting Rev Rapters." The second door opened, revealing a pair of Rev Rapters. Both walked in, hissing and snarling as Rev Rapters were want to do.

"The battle continues until one team is completely eliminated or gives up." He continued. "Contestants, are you ready?" There was another roar from the Tiger, and roars form the two Rapters. "Fi-"

Before he could finish, the glass ceiling literally exploded in as a pair of massive shapes smashed through it. A pair of Iron Kongs crashed down, landing in the middle of the arena. Before he could do anything, one of them opened fire on Reed's Tiger with its heavy beam cannon, blasting the right foreleg off.

The Rev Rapters reacted faster, one of them charging straight at the Iron Kong before leaping into the air to strike. The Kong simply grabbed the Rapter in one of its massive hands, then threw it back at the other one. The two Zoids collided, crashing to the ground in a tangled mess of limbs.

"Attention!" Zofia shouted over her Zoid's PA system. "You are all under arrest. Do not move. Do not attempt to leave the building." Her Kong turned towards the Zaber it had downed. Outside, a squad of Hammer Rocks of varying configurations had the building surrounded and would apprehend anyone who tried to leave whether they were on foot or in a Zoid. Everything had gone off perfectly.

-----

Club Outre

Tempus, Chrono

V. E. Russoff was not a complicated man. He liked money and he liked power. That was what he wanted in the world. He figured that once he had plenty of those, he could get anything else he wanted. The Underground Zoid Fighting circuit was his ticket to getting the money and power he needed. Simple.

Russof was far from impressive looking. Average height and build, he was slightly overweight with a thick beard and somewhat fake-looking boofy black hair. (It was a wig, but he didn't out and say that.) However, he was reasonably sharp. He'd discovered the Zoid fighting while researching an article for an underground culture magazine.

When he'd found it, it was about a small group of soldiers, mercenaries and middle-aged executives who, in their spare time, climbed into Zoids and beat the stuffing out of each other. They apparently did it for the sheer challenge of beating the stuffing out of each other and because it was, after a fashion, fun.

He'd realised that there was an awful lot of potential in this racket and, as such had managed to latch onto it like a leech. He'd arranged to get videos of these fights made and then sell them off for a good profit. He'd started placing bets on fights. Soon what had been a small, private fight club had become a multi-million credit criminal empire. The small group of pilots had been complimented by many more looking for infamy and fortune with as little work as possible.

And it had all flowed back into his pocket. Things had gone pretty well for him. Sure there had been the odd problem from time to time (Like that time two years ago when a kid had one the tournament in a major upset and then the second place had tried to kill him in front of everyone) but otherwise things had gone well.

He was waiting for a call back from Sullivan, one of his chief arena managers. He'd planned a one-on-two fight for the night, pitting two weaker Zoids (With crap pilots, he added) against one experienced pilot. The betting (which he skimmed off the top of) had been quite interesting.

He looked down at the club. Below, a large number of his pilots were mingling with each other and a bevy of assorted hanger-onerers, plus a few call girls he'd thrown into the mix. There was a lot of booze and money changing hands. He could see one of his favourites sulking in a corner, looking decidedly unhappy. She called herself the Black Queen. He liked her, for her looks mainly. However, she was one of the least sociable of his pilots. At the 'functions' like this all she ever did was sulk in the corner and nurse one drink. He'd have to find some way to loosen her up.

There was a knock on the door to his office of the night. "Who is it?" he asked, tearing himself away from the floor.

"Call for you, sir." Came the voice form the other side. "It's Sullivan, sir."

"Right. Bring it in." A nameless flunkie entered, holding a mobile. "Thanks." He took the phone. "Hey, Big K. How's it going over there?"

"Not so good, boss." Came the nervous-sounding reply.

"Not so good?" He asked. "What happened? Didn't the crowd like the fight? Did those two loosers manage to win without either going down? What?"

"Um, no boss. We didn't get to the fight."

"And why not?"

"Because we got raided by the feds, sir. UZN armed forces….A pair of Iron Kong PKs came through the roof and Hammer Rocks surrounded us."

"So who did they get?" He shouted.

"Um, everyone."

"Everyone?"

"Yes sir. They got everyone except me. And that was because I was, um, indisposed, boss."

"Fine." He rubbed his forehead. "So where are you now?"

"I'm still in the mends room, boss." He admitted. "I'm hiding. They've got troops running through the place looking for anyone who they may have missed. But I think they got pretty much everyone."

"Right." He gritted his teeth. "This has been a bit of a disaster, Sullivan."

"So, um, what do you what me to do, boss?"

"Just stay where you are. I'm going to think of something."

"Yes boss."

Russoff hung up the call then threw the phone back at the flunkie. "If he calls back, tell him I'm working on it and say that he's not to move."

"Yes boss." The flunkie left.

Rusoff turned to look over the club's floor again. A third of his pilots and Zoids had just gone in one go. Not to mention a large portion of his patronage. He couldn't see the live attendance at forthcoming events staying high after this disaster. Damn it, he'd be lucky if someone didn't squeal and manage to get him fingered for running the whole mess. As it was Zoid-related crime, he could see that it might be considered a military matter. Which didn't bode well for a trial.

He pulled out his own phone. "Gavin, cancel the party. Inform everyone that there has been a problem over at MRI and we're shutting down for security reasons."

"Yes sir." Came the voice form the other end. "Oh, and we have a problem at the door. Some very insistent people trying to get in."

"You're running the club. You have bouncers. You figure it out." He snapped, then slammed the phone shut. Honestly.

-----

"I'm sorry ma'am." The hulking mass of cheap suit that was one of the bouncers began. "But I can't let you in."

"Why?" Vic asked, looking up at him in a way that would be cute on any other short, blonde girl.

"You're not on the list." He replied.

"Why?" She asked again.

"Because this is a private party." He replied.

"Why?" She asked again.

"Because it's for people invited by the boss." He replied.

"Why?" She asked again.

"Because they work for him." He replied.

"Why?" She asked again.

"Just leave it off, Vic." Sandra said, clamping a hand on her shoulder.

"Awww…" She sulked.

"So, um, who is the party for?" Rick asked.

"That's none of your damn business." The bouncer replied with a snarl. Rick decided not to force the issue. The bouncer was far larger then he was anyway.

Sandra kicked an abandoned drink can out of frustration. They'd come all the way to Chronos to try to track down Sel and find out what in the name of all things holy she was doing participating in illegal Zoid fights. Through a network of contacts, she'd managed to find out that some 'big names' were at this one super-expensive trendy club. Her initial plan had been to bluff her way past the doormen and then confront Sel. However, the local resistance was proving tougher then she'd expected.

"Hang on, I think something's happening." Rick said, glancing down the street.

A fleet of luxury sedans had materialised out of seemingly nowhere, forming an orderly queue in front of the club. "Arriving or departing, I wonder?" Sandra asked herself.

"Hmm… given the way they suddenly appeared, I'd say leaving and in a hurry too." True enough, the doors to the club were suddenly thrown open. A stream of people were escorted out from the club, with minders hanging around them, keeping an open eye for trouble.

"Something must have gone bad." Sandra muttered. "You don't clear out of an expensive club in a hurry otherwise."

"Maybe they don't like the décor." Vic muttered.

"Quite possibly…" Sandra said as she watched the departing crowds. A figure amongst them caught her eye. A black haired, dark skinned woman dressed in black, leaving the club and climbing into a car. "Sel!" She shouted

The woman looked up for an instant before a minder slammed the door shut. Before Sandra could do anything else. The car left, the next one taking its place.

"Tool." She swore at the departing car.

"Well, that looks like it." Rick said. "Any other plans?"

"We beat up everyone around until they start talking?" Vic asked.

"No."

"Not even a little?" She looked hopeful.

"No!" Sandra almost shouted back.

"Aww…" She muttered.

"Well, any other bright ideas?" Rick asked. It began to rain, making her feel even more miserable.

"The direct approach hasn't worked." Sandra began. "So it's time to do something a little more subtle." She turned to look at the pair of them. "Anyone here got any experience of undercover work?"

"I once posed as an evil terrorist to get inside a secret underground city and go joy-riding in a Deathsaurer." Vic offered.

Long pause.

"Right." Sandra replied. "I guess I've got some teaching to do."

-----

Sandra looked at Rick and Vic. Then she looked around at the seedy, run-down hotel room they had spent the night in. Then she looked back to therm and shook her head. "Why me?" She muttered. "Dear Tomy, why always me?"

"What?" Rick asked. He was wearing a white shirt, black pants and a black longcoat, identical to Sandra's. A pair of sunglasses and a beanie rounded out the look. "What did I do?"

"No idea." Vic replied. She was dressed virtually the same, only with smaller glasses.

"Fine. Right." Sandra said. "Guys, your outfits?"

"What about them?" Rick asked. "Its what you're wearing."

"I… I…" She stammered. True, she was wearing he usual black with longcoat ensemble. She'd added a pair of mirrored, wrap-around shades that served mainly to cover her scars, but that as it.

"Besides. Welook like a group. Or a team. Or a possie." Rick said.

"Clique." Vic added. "Click. Snigger."

"Fine." Sandra said. 'Now what are your names again?"

"Rory Stonewall." Rick began.

"Polly page." Vic added.

"And I am-"

"Cassandra Black." They both said.

"Good." She finished. "And remember. We're battle-hardened mercenaries who don't have many objections about where our money is coming from and we're looking for the quick and dirty road to fame and fortune."

"Great." Rick said. "Now we're dark and broody. We probably lurk on rooftops while our capes billow out behind us too."

Sandra chose to ignore him. "Let's go."

-----

Compared to the places he usually liked to occupy in clubs, Russoff's actual office was a rather understated and shabby affair. A small walled-off office inside an otherwise abandoned warehouse, its most dominant features were his own rather large desk, a pair of seats and a leather couch that he liked to lie on to do his thinking. Right now, he was lying on it, trying hard to think of a way to recoup his losses from last night's fiasco.

His phone rang. Grunting with displeasure, he reached over and yanked it off the desk. "Yes, what?" He shouted.

"Hey, it's Ernest here." Ernest was one of his top recruiters of new fighters, or 'talent' as he preferred to put it. Ernest was also a self-professed expert on all things cool who had a rather over inflated opinion of himself. But he also had a good eye for talent.

"Ernest!" He shouted sitting up. "What's the news? Find anything?"

"One of my guys has found us three people who want in." he replied. "And another thinks he may have one."

"What's the details?"

"Well, the three are mercenaries form the wastelands. They look tough and reasonably experienced. The guy said they were good, except one kept giggling." He explained. "They've got their own Zoids to."

"What types?"

"Shield Liger, Command Wolf and Gunsniper."

Rusoff nodded. It sounded good so far. "And the other one?"

"A girl. Red hair, long legs… real looker too." Ernest eagerly explained. "She wouldn't give me any more unless I could give her some concrete details, but I think she has her own Zoid too."

"Good work." Russoff replied. "Bring 'em all in. I want to see what these guys have."

"Gotcha, boss." Ernest said and hung up.

He lay back on the chair. Three, possibly four new fighters and Zoids in one day. Not bad. It's a start, at least. He couldn't wait to see what they could do.

-----


	34. Fight Club Round Two

Plastramia Plant #7

Tempus, Chronos

1900 Hours

No sooner had Russoff arrived at the arena then he'd gone to his on-site office. A former site supervisor's office which was used to look over the entire production floor, it now had an unparalleled view of the arena. He rarely attended fight nights in person, usually delegating the running of the night to one of his underlings. However, since the disaster at the MRI arena last week, he'd been in damage control mode.

This was the first night that his new recruits would be fighting. All four of them had their own Zoids and all four of them had shown a lot of promise in practice. Now he had to see how they'd do for real.

There was a nervous knock on his door. "Yeah?" He asked as he looked up from his desk. "Who is it?"

"It's me. Mark." The voice from the other side of the door nervously replied.

"Come in!" Russoff shouted back.

"Thanks." The door opened, revealing a nervous looking young man, dressed in a shabby pilots suit that could almost pass for high fashion in some circles. "I, um, heard you were on-site so I thought I'd drop by."

"Not a problem." Russoff began. "Have a seat, my boy. It's going to be a good night tonight, so you might as well have the best damned view in the house."

"Thanks." He replied, sitting on one of the chairs in the office. "And thanks again for looking after me."

"Not a problem." Rusoff said, dismissively. "Your dad did me a lot of favours way back when. Least I can do for him is to look after you." That was an understatement. Mark's father, the late Donchoi Zell, had helped set up a few meetings between Rusoff and the fight club which had eventually come to run. If not for him, Russoff probably would still be doing fan magazines.

"Thanks for that…" Mark replied, but Russoff cut him off before he could add anything.

"Besides, I need a new site manager to replace Sullivan." He continued. "I was thinking you could be a shoe in for the job, kid?"

"Me?" He spluttered. "But why?"

"You spent all those years as a desert mercenary, for starters. You then are the only guy to survive when your whole team gets wiped out. That means you're tough. It's what I need in a guy who's going to be running what is a technically illegal operation."

"Really? Thanks." He looked down. "When the Major died, I thought I was done for."

"Kid, the world is full of great opportunities." Russoff explained. "What you've got to do is grab a hold of 'em and screw 'em for all they're worth. The fans, the people who come to these fights, they're idiots, but they're idiots who have lots of money. That's an opportunity that you need to take advantage of. Do you understand?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Good." He sat back. "Now enjoy the fight."

-----

Sandra sat on a bench outside the locker room, starring up at the ceiling. For the last week she'd been dreading this moment. She was going to take part in an illegal Zoid fight so she could find out what Sel was doing taking part in an illegal Zoid fight. The risks of the whole thing were considerable.

For the millionth time that week, she questioned what she was doing there. Then she looked around, and saw Rick and Vic. The pair of them were reading over a list. Vic was sniggering. She looked back up at the ceiling, and questioned for the millionth time why she'd bought the pair of them along.

The last week had consisted of a few "interviews" with various seedy people in various seedy locales, before a day's worth of try-outs in a small arena constructed inside a warehouse along with one other, sight unseen, candidate. They hadn't actually fought, but more of shown off how good they were at manoeuvring their Zoids and the like. Then they'd arranged to have their Zoids moved to this location, and told to show up here for their first night of fights.

She hadn't seen any sign of Sel yet. Then again, she hadn't seen anyone else besides Rick and Vic. She assumed that the pair of them hadn't seen her either. She said assumed, as Rick had breezed through the training sessions and then spent the rest of his time trying to find out who the other pilot with them was, apparently to no avail. Vic had just been her usual, strangely detached self, which was no use whatsoever.

A TV hanging in one corner showed a grainy, black-and-white view of the arena. Sandra guessed that it was there for the benefit of fighters waiting in the locker room, so they could see what was going on outside.

Rick and Vic sat down on either side of her. "We went over the running order for the night." He began. "Polly's on first, then me and then you."

"Did you recognise any of the names on the list besides ours?" She asked.

"Nope." Rick said. "Half of them were stage names anyway. At least I hope they were. It'd be worrying if there really people with names like that."

"Mister Skeletor Smith of number 47 Trouser Press Boulevard." Vic added, then sniggered.

"Right." Sandra said and shook her head. "Any sign of this 'Black Queen'?"

"Nope." Rick said. "There was a Red Devil but no black queen."

"Revolver Ocelot." Vic added, then sniggered.

Their view of the TV screen was blacked by a trio of figures. All three of them were large and rather unpleasant to look at in Sandra's mind. The first was a large woman with short-cropped black hair and several scars on her face. She wore a black and flame-patterned red sleeveless shirt that only served to show off the large number of scars on her arms.

The second man was even larger and broader, with dark skin and a shaved head that was decorated with a short layer of stubble. His eyes, however, were an odd light green colour that made her immediately think of Vic. Like the woman, his black shirt was sleeveless, and showed up a number of tattoos running down his arms.

The third man was just as tall, but somewhat slimmer. He had long, greasy black hair and sunken, dark eyes, as well as a small goatee beard. He wore a large, black longcoat and a high-collared shirt, as well as a broad-brimmed black hat.

"Hey. He buys his stuff at the same place as you, Cass." Rick said, elbowing her.

She chose to ignore Rick for the moment, especially given that he was wearing the same kind of clothes. "What do you want?"

"Just so you know." The woman sneered. "We're your opponents for tonight."

"That's nice." Vic replied.

"Glad to meet you." Rick said, holding out his hand. "Rory Stonewall."

Nobody took it. "Don't think that because you're new here we'll be taking it easy on you." The dark-skinned man continued. "In fact, we enjoy breaking in newbies."

Behind her shades, Sandra rolled her eyes. Great. Overconfident, muscle-bound brain-dead clods sent in to break the new guys in. This was going to hurt. This was going to really, really hurt.

"But don't let that scare you off." The hat-wearing man said. "We're looking forwards to our fights tonight. We always enjoy dishing out a little hurt and pain."

"Sounds fun." Vic replied. "Can I reciprocate?" She then sniggered, then burst out laughing.

There was a long silence. "What's with her?" The man in black asked.

"I said reciprocate. Oops." She sniggered again.

Way to ruin the mood Vic, Sandra thought and then smiled. That would have really, really thrown them.

"Don't act smart." The dark-skinned man snapped. "We're going to make you pay for that."

"Hey, they're saying impudence to us." Rick said.

"And that is impudence." Vic replied, and laughed again. Sandra shook her head. This was going to be bad.

"Polly Page and Red Devil!" A man shouted from one of the doors into the room. "You two are on next! Get to your Zoids already!"

Vic stood. The woman glared angrily at her. "You're in really trouble now, girl." She snarled.

"Really?" Vic asked. "Cool."

-----

Up in his office, Russoff rubbed his hands together in glee. "First match of the night." He began. "It's one of those new guys we found. She's up against Red Devil, which means we're in for a fun fight."

"Who?" Mark asked.

"She's one of our best lightweight Zoid pilots. She likes to fight up close and dirty, which leads to some very messy, very spectacular fights." He turned towards Mark. "You're in for a good time tonight."

Below, the previously dark arena was lit up by spotlights suspended form the roof. The gate at the far end opened, revealing the small, vicious form of a Rev Rapter. This one was unusual, in that it had a pair of CP-08 pile driver units, one mounted on each side. "Introducing first, in the red corner, we have a Rev Rapter piloted by Red Devil!" The Rapter roared in anticipation.

The other gate opened, but no Zoid emerged. There was a long silence as nothing happened. "Umm…" Mark asked. "Shouldn't the other Zoid enter now ?"

"Just a second." Russoff drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, then picked up a phone. "Russoff here. What the bloody hell is happening down there?"

"Page's Zoid is just standing in the bay, sir." A technician replied.

"What?"

"She's not moving at all."

"Fine." He snapped. "Leave her there."

"B-but-"

Russoff hung up the phone before the tech could reply, then punched in another number. "Announce Page, then start the fight. If she doesn't appear in thirty seconds after that, we forfeit it. If she's had an attack of the nerves, that's her fault."

"Yes, boss." The announcer replied. Russof slammed the phone down.

"Sorry 'bout that." He said. "This should get things going."

"A-and her opponent, in the b-blue corner, a Gunsniper piloted by Polly Page!"

No sign of the Gunsniper.

"Contestants, are you ready?" The Rev Rapter roared, which he took as good enough. "Ready, fight!" A siren sounded to signal the start of the battle.

There was a shot. The Rev Rapter collapsed, smoke billowing out of its chest. There was another long silence. Mark turned to Russoff, to see him clutching his phone, his knuckles turning white.

"What in the name of Tomy happened down there?!" he shouted into the phone.

"Um, I-I think Page fired her Zoid's sniper rifle f-from inside the hanger b-bay itself." The announcer replied. "Devil's Rev Rapter appears to be out of action."

"Fine. Call the fight over. Page won."

"But-but-"

"TOMY DAMN IT, JUST DO IT!" He shouted.

"Y-yes sir!" The announcer stammered out.

Russoff slammed his phone shut, then turned to Mark. "Sorry about that, m'boy." He said.

"You're allowing it?"

"It's a victory under our rules." He said. "Besides, I can set them up for a re-match."

A siren sounded through the stadium. "The winner, by disabling of the opponent's Zoid, is Polly Page!" The announcer said, rather nervously. He turned towards the hanger door. Nothing happened.

-----

"Tool." Sandra muttered under her breath. "Tool tool tool tool tool tool tooly tool."

"What?" Rick asked. 'What's up with you?"

"Didn't you just see what V- Polly just did?" Sandra snapped.

"Yeah, she won her match." He replied. "So what?"

"Rory, she just juiced one of their buddies in a second with what has to be an illegal move." She explained. "We're up against those two tonight. They are probably going to be very, very, very unhappy with us and will probably do their utmost to make us into dead thing pies."

"But weren't they going to do that to us already?" Rick asked.

Pause. "Good point."

"Besides, it's V- er, Polly. You know what she's like."

"Good point." Sandra said. "You show her a big red button labelled 'do not press this button' and she'd press it because she knows she wasn't meant to."

"Rory Stonewall and Droch. You two are on next!" someone shouted.

"Wish me luck." Rick said as he stood.

"Why? You don't need it." Sandra replied.

Rick walked over to the door, only to be joined by the large, dark skinned man. "After you." He insisted.

"I'm going to break you in two, little man." He sneered.

Rick gulped. "Do, ah, you want to be in an independent comic book?" He asked.

Sandra shook her head, the buried it in her hands. This could not end well.

-----

Rick sat in the Command Wolf's cockpit, looking out at the closed hanger bay door ahead of him. He'd been informed that he was entering first. Understandable, given what Vic had just done. He'd read over the rules. Hit your opponent until he falls over and doesn't pick himself up afterwards. That seemed simple enough to him.

A green light flashed on next to the hanger door, which slowly rose up. Rick looked out into the stadium as it appeared. It was a wide, open space, like the Arena of Sport where he fought Darth Pants. Only, unlike the arena, there were no obstacles at all.

"Introducing in the blue corner, Rory Stonewall in his Command Wolf!" The announcer called out. Taking this as his signal, he manoeuvred the Command Wolf out into the arena. Stopping outside the gate, he looked around and tried to figure the situation.

"My range advantage will count for diddly squat in here." He muttered to himself. "Unless my opponent's in a Shadow Fox, I've got speed and mobility on my side. Just a matter of what he has."

"And his opponent, in the red Corner, Drotch in his Spinosapper!" The announcer excitedly called out.

The bay door opened, revealing the white and brown form of the Spinosapper. Smaller then his Command Wolf, it stood upright on its hind legs. Originally, designed for engineering, the Spinosapper was found to be suitable for combat due to its heavy armour. Checking it, Rick could see that this one didn't appear to be armed with any extra weapons pods. This was good because it meant he could out-gun it. It was also bad because the Spinosapper still had its two Laser-edged chainsaws, which could cut his Zoid to pieces.

"Contestants! Ready…. FIGHT!" The announcer shouted rather enthusiastically. A siren sounded, signalling the start of the match.

The Spinosapper wasted no time, deploying its twin chainsaws and charging forwards. Rick decided that a head-on confrontation was not the best idea, and leaped the Wolf to one side, breaking into a run. I have speed and firepower over him. Rick thought. But he's got the better armour, and can cut me to ribbons with those things.

The Command Wolf ran towards the Spinosapper, maintaining a parallel course. Rick's plan was simply to run past him, firing his back turret like crazy. Once he was behind it, he'd use his superior speed and mobility to keep out of his way. Good thing this guy doesn't have any CPs, Rick thought.

Turning the cannons towards the Spinosapper, he opened fire. He wasn't aiming to kill, but to at least damage or distract. A pair of his shots tore into the Zoid's knees, shredding both armour and hydraulics as he went. Rick sped past, not hanging around to check the results of his work. Desperate to keep up with him, the Spinosapper turned - and abruptly keeled over.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Rick turned back to the Spinosapper. He could see it lying on the ground, both of its knees bent in odd ways. Then he realised what had happened. He'd accidentally kneecapped it. The Spinosarus Zoid struggled a bit on the ground, trying badly to get up, before collapsing.

The siren sounded. "The winner, by disabling the opponent's Zoid is Rory Stonewall!" the announcer called out somewhat apprehensively.

-----

"Um, are you okay?" Mark asked, turning to Russoff.

"I'm fine." He said through firmly clenched teeth, which meant it was obvious that such was not the case.

"I didn't expect that to happen" Mark continued. "I mean, just taking out the Spinosapper in one hit. That guy must be a really, really good shot."

"Yes." Russoff snarled. "A great shot."

"I mean, two battles over in one hit in a row!" He continued. "Is it always this exciting?"

"Well…" Russoff began. "No. I mean, this is very, very unusual night. Yes. Very unusual."

"Cool." Mark replied. "I can't wait to see what happens next."

-----

Rick walked back into the waiting room, grinning like an idiot. "Hey!" He shouted. "Am I good or am I good." The man in the sinister hat turned to face him, glaring angrily. Rick ignored him. "Well, am I?"

"You are stupidly lucky." Sandra replied. "You should not have been able to pull that off."

"But I did." Rick replied. "Took him down in one go too."

"We're one-hit wonders." Vic added.

"See, I told you everything would turn out fine." Rick said, grinning. "You didn't have to worry."

"Rory," Sandra replied. "You are a worry."

"What about me?" Vic asked. "Am I a worry too?"

Polly, you're…" She began. "You're just unique."

"Thanks." Vic replied, and grinned.

The man in the coat and hat approached, looming over the three of them, glaring menacingly at Sandra. "Don't think you're going to be as lucky as your friends." He began. "Unlike the other two I am not so foolish as to open myself up to an attack like that." He turned towards Rick. "You were just lucky. Don't count on it happening all the time." He then glared at Vic. "And don't think your sniper trick will work ever again."

"One question." Vic Asked.

"Yes?"

"Where did you get that hat from?"

He snarled. "You little fool. Don't you realise how much trouble you're in?"

"She never does." Rick said, cutting off any snappy comment by Vic or Sandra.

"Come on, you big tool." Sandra said, standing. "If I wanted to listen to you tool on all day about how you're going to break us, I'd buy a tape of it and listen through headphones while reading a book."

"Good one." Rick sniggered.

He seemed to be at a loss for words, so he just stood there, looking angry. Rick could tell that inwardly, Sandra was smiling.

-----

Sandra sat in the cockpit of her Shield Liger, waiting. She had no doubt that Rick and Vic had played merry hell with the organisers' schedules for the night with their stupidly quick victories. Right now she suspected they were trying to keep the crowd happy. They had probably paid a lot to be here, and the stars weren't putting on a good show. The Shield Liger growled in anticipation. "You anxious too, huh Spud?" She casually asked it. "Worried about your debut in front of a live audience?" It didn't seem to respond to that. She laughed to herself. Now I'm talking to my Zoid. Great. I must be going nuts.

The hanger door opened, revealing the empty arena. "They definitely want us out first", she muttered. "Let's go" The liger strode out into the arena as the announcer began his spiel.

"Introducing first in the blue corner, Cassandra Black piloting a Shield Liger."

The Liger stopped just outside the hanger and roared angrily. Sandra could tell that it was uneasy for some reason. Maybe it just didn't like the setup of the situation; fighting for other people's entertainment. She couldn't say that she agreed with it either.

The other door opened, revealing a rather squat and, in Sandra's eyes, misshapen dinosaur-like Zoid. It strode into the arena, reassembling nothing so much as a mess of teeth, claws and weapons. "And in the red corner, the Chaplain piloting a Gravity Saurer!"

Great, she thought. A brand new Zoid and there's already some tool using it here. She quickly tried to figure outs its abilities. It's heavily armed, reasonably armoured, slow and ugly, she thought. I suspect its armour is better then mine, shield aside. The Gravity Saurer roared, a strange combination of the typical dinosaur roar and a warble. Okay, so it's also ugly and sounds kind of weird, she mentally added to her assessment.

"Ready...." The announcer began. "Fight!" The siren rang out across the arena.

Both she and her opponent reacted n the same way. Both of them turned and broke into runs, heading away from each other rather then going for a direct head-on confrontation. Sandra had no desire to run head-first into the Gravity Saurer's weapons, shield or no shield. And she suspected he had no desire to risk getting run down by her. However, he'd also put himself at a distinct disadvantage.

Flipping a switch, she activated the Liger's pop-up cannons. The weapons emerged form the Liger's back, then turned to face the enemy Zoid. Thumbing the trigger, Sandra sprayed the enemy Zoid as she ran. The shots went everywhere, with a few of them hitting their mark but not doing much damage. Still, she knew she had an advantage. Her Liger's main guns were turreted, while all of the Gravity Saurer's were facing directly forwards. She'd often joked that the Shield Liger could bring more firepower to bear behind it then in front of it. Now she could see the use of it.

The Gravity Saurer turned to fire back at her, abandoning its previous plan. The two back mounted missiles fired, spiraling away from the Saurer and arcing around to hit the Liger. Sharply pulling the controls, Sandra forced the liger to turn into the missiles' paths. Not designed for sharp manoeuvring over such an enclosed space, the first missile went wide, tearing up the arena floor. The second missile came closer, shaking the Liger.

Sandra gritted her teeth as she was shaken around the cockpit. Checking her systems indicators, she could see that the Zoid was more or less fine, with only some armour damage. More importantly, she was now approaching the Gravity Saurer, and out of the arc of fire of its main guns. Lining up the Saurer, she opened fire with the chin-mounted impact cannon and the concealed rocket pods. The shots hit the Saurer, peeling armour off its flank and exposing the mechanisms of its leg over the hip.

"Gotcha sucker." She muttered. The Saurer turned towards her, trying to bring its main guns to bear. She'd forced him into a situation where she had the advantage. She put her shield up just as the Gravity Saurer opened fire with its six secondary cannons mounted on its back and underside. The Shots bounced off her shield as the Liger charged forwards. Realising his mistake, the Gravity Saurer's pilot tried to manoeuvre his machine out of the way, turning its damaged side away from her.

"Too late." She said, and smiled. "Get 'em, Spud." The Liger leaped at the Gravity Saurer, bringing its claws down on the Zoid's back and sides. The claws raked out huge chunks of armour, digging in to the already damaged hip. No sooner had Sandra come down then she opened fire with the tail gun and the turret, now facing backwards, further damaging the Gravity Saurer's damaged flank.

The Saurer turned, its hip clearly stiff and not responding well, its pilot opening fire with its remaining weapons. Thinking fast, Sandra turned away from it, but still took a few hits to the sides. Looking good so far, she thought. She yanked the controls hard to the right, forcing the Saurer to favour its damaged hip in order to keep up with her. Now to put him down.

The Liger opened up again with the turret, the shots spraying along the Gravity Saurer's side. Realising he was in trouble, the pilot tried to chase her down, his Zoid limping after the Liger. It'd be comical, she thought, if he wasn't trying to kill me. Sandra continued to turn, bringing her Zoid closer to the wall whole still forcing the Gravity Saurer to stay on its damaged hip to keep a bead on her.

"Now"! She shouted to herself and the Liger. The Zoid made an incredibly sharp turn off the wall, shots from the enemy Zoid peppering the concrete behind her. Bouncing back, she came charging right at its badly damaged flank, opening fire with the impact cannon. The shots hit, striking the damaged hip. The Gravity Saurer staggered on the spot, its leg apparently unable to move.

"Who's the smug one now?" She asked as she leaped at it, the claws raking along its flank. The damaged leg simply tore free form the body, smashing to the ground nearby. Opposite it, the Gravity Saurer staggered, then simply keeled over. "Dumbarse."

The siren sounded. "The winner, by disabling the opponent's Zoid, is Cassandra Black!"

-----

Apparently a customary part of every fight night was that afterwards, everyone was bussed off to a club to rub shoulders and get uproariously drunk. Sandra couldn't figure why, but she didn't mind either. It was certainly worth it to see the same doorman who had been so spectacularly unhelpful to them before now go out of his way to be nice. Especially once Vic got to him.

The instant she was in the door, Sandra had gone about looking for Sel. For the last week and a bit, she'd been trying to find out what she was doing here to no avail. Since the three of them had joined the fight club, Sandra hadn't seen or heard of her even once. She suspected that Sel was in an "upper" end of the club whereas lowly newcomers like her got to hang around with the assorted grunts and morons. The three of them had fanned out over the club with orders to try and find Sel and wring out of her what they wanted to know.

Of course, for not the first time, Sandra had questioned why she was doing all this. The best answer she could think of was that Sel was her friend and she shouldn't be messed up in something like this. The bit she didn't want to admit was that there was still a lot of cop in her. She wanted to know what the hell was going on here and, if possible, use it as an excuse to break a lot of heads and make a lot of arrests. Sandra had loved breaking heads and making arrests. It was one of the things that had made her job bearable.

So now she was in a very 'cop' mood. She was going undercover to find information. She was looking for someone and had a few leads. And her partners were sure to make a mess of things.

-----

Rick had been wandering around the club, obstinately looking for Sel. It wasn't easy. Black seemed to be the in colour for the Zoid fighting circuit, which meant that Sel's 'black queen' guise wouldn't stand out that much. The secret, he figured, was to look for someone wearing black, with black hair and dark skin. That should make it easy, he reasoned. Now, figure out that Sel is... he tried to guess.... Almost as tall as Sandra, and shaped like... Right. That should work.

A woman at the bar caught his attention. She was the right height, he figured, and about the right shape. And she was wearing black. On the other hand, she had pale skin and red hair. He thought this over for a second. Tall, red hair, nice shape. Right. He walked over to the bar right next to her. "Hey, Rose. It's me. Didn't expect to see you here."

The woman turned to look at him. Instead of the nice green eyes he'd been expecting, she had rather narrow blue eyes. And her cheekbones were higher. And her skin was paler. And she was more muscular. And she really didn't look that much like Rose apart from being tall and having red hair. "I'm sorry." She replied. "You must have me confused with someone else."

"Well that's okay." Rick began. "Rory Stonewall. I just had my first day today." He offered his hand.

She turned away. "My name is Anastasia Stromberg. This was also my first day." Rick and Vic hadn't hung around to watch the other fights, instead spending as much time as possible cleaning up and messing around. Vic had spent a bit of time annoying people. It was her hobby. Sandra had watched the other fights (and fighters) for any sign of Sel. Rick had no idea there was another newbie on.

"Did it go well?" He asked. "Did you win?"

"Yes." She replied, clearly ignoring him.

"And what Zoid do you pilot?" Rick asked. "I've got a Command Wolf AC."

"Iron Kong." She replied.

"Ah." Rick was smart enough to know what happened when Wolves fought Kongs. The answer was flat Wolves. "Well, I'll, ah, talk to you later." He walked off to mingle and resume his search for Sel. She barely seemed to acknowledge his absence. "I think that went well."

-----

Sandra hated clubs like this. In a traditional bar or other such watering hole, the bartender was a great source of information. Usually they were grizzled middle aged men with lots of scars and a keen ear, who seemed to be paid just as much to listen as they were to serve drinks. A place like this employed young, beautiful-looking people who were paid primarily to show off and look cool while mixing stupidly overpriced cocktails while ignoring any efforts by other customers to talk to them.

So she'd been spending the last hour wandering through the club, trying to talk to the handful of other pilots she could find who looked smart enough to string together a coherent sentence. She also had to make sure she didn't attract too much attention with her asking strange questions.

So she tried looking for people who didn't obviously fit in. Ones who looked a different from the norm, (where the norm seemed to be big, beefy people wearing black or cammos, and rent-a-bimbos on their arms). In the end, she'd found one who she thought fit the bill. Shorter then most and considerably overweight, he sported a beards that would look better on someone else and a bright blue floral-print shirt that stood out like a sore thumb. He had a drink in hand and appeared to be nursing it for as long as possible. With the prices in this place, she couldn't blame him.

"This is going to be a stupid question." She began. "But you distinctly don't belong here. Care to explain?"

"I'm with an underground, on-line magazine." He explained. "I cover this sort of stuff."

"Cool." Sandra replied. "You'd know a lot about this kind of stuff, right?"

"Well, yeah." He said. "It's my job and all."

"You couldn't help me out with something." She began.

"I could try." he replied. "What do you need?"

"I'm actually looking for a specific fighter. I've been trying to meet her for a while. We know each other from a while back." Not a complete lie, she mentally added.

"What's her name?" He asked.

"She competes as the 'Black Queen.'" Sandra replied. "Heard of her?"

"Pilots a Darkhorn, likes to ram into opponents then stomp up and down on them?"

"That's her." Sandra replied. "Would she be here tonight?"

"Heck no." The man replied. "She works for the other half of the organisation, so she wouldn't be here."

"Other half?"

"Didn't you know about that?"

Sandra shook her head. "This is my first night. I'm stupid. Fill me in."

"Well, what happens is management has divided the roster into two 'halves'." He began. "That way they can have more fight nights per week. Rather then doing everyone in one lot, they do two separate lots." He took on a condescending tone, as if he was explaining everything to an idiot. "Once a month, the two 'halves' get together and they do crossover fights. As the fights on that night are once a month things, the betting is a lot heavier then it would be on a normal night, and you can charge more for admission."

"So I'd be unlikely to see her until then?"

"Pretty much." He replied. "Unless you knew her outside of the club. Or if they do a random roster re-sort, but that's unlikely."

"Thanks." Sandra replied and left him alone to sulk in the corner. So they could be stuck here for a whole month. This was not going to go well.

-----

Russoff rarely entertained anyone in his private booth at the club. However, tonight he was making an exception.

"How do I look?" He asked Mark for the zillionth time.

"You look great" Mark replied for the zillionth time.

There was a knock at the door. Russoff jumped before regaining his composure. "Who is it?" He shouted out.

"Your guest is here." The lackey on the other side of the door replied.

"Good!" He shouted. "Great! Send them in."

A tall, attractive red-haired woman, wearing a shoulder-less red dress and long gloves entered the room. "S-sorry to keep you waiting." Russoff gibbered. "It's good to meet you, Ms Snow."

"Please call me Amelia." The woman replied. "It's good to meet you, mister Rusoff."

"And, ah, this is my assistant, Mark Zell."

"Pleased to meet you." He replied, taking her hand and kissing her on the wrist.

"What a charming young man." Amelia replied. Russoff muttered something. "I'm sorry?"

"I was just thinking we should get down to business." He replied.

"Certainly." Amelia began, walking over to the window, looking down on the club. "These windows are one way glass, right?"

"Er, yes." Russoff replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering." She said. "I appreciate privacy. I'm sure you can understand that."

"Er, yes." he muttered. "So, tell me more about what it is you do."

"Its less what I do as what I have." She replied. "I currently lead a small but well-trained group of experienced combatants and their Zoids. I feel that they could use some more practice between battles."

"So you want to enter them into my arena?" He asked.

"It was what I was considering, yes." She replied. "However, if possible, I'd like to observe your organisation for a while. I'd like to see what you have to offer." She smiled, raising an eyebrow.

Russof's heart jumped. "Um, yes. Certainly. That would be, um, good. Yes." He coughed loudly.

"You okay there?" Mark asked, slapping him hard on the back.

"I'm fine!" He snapped, then turned back to Amelia. "So what do you have in the way of Zoids?"

"A Blade Liger, a Shield Liger, a Saber Tiger and some Arosaurers." She replied, turning back to look out over the floor. One of the crowd caught her eye, a short, blonde woman. While she watched, the blonde woman turned to look up at her.

"A Blade Liger?" Russoff asked. "Sounds like it could be interesting."

She looked down at the blonde woman, who had removed her shades to reveal a pair of pale greeny-yellow eyes underneath. "Yes." She replied. "It could be very, very interesting."

-----


	35. Fight Club Round Three

Estrella Assembly plant

Tempus, Chronos

1800 hrs

For the first time in a long, long time, Russoff was not looking forward to tonight's fights. Four weeks ago, he'd taken on a quartet of new fighters. Three weeks ago, they'd made their debuts. All four of them had defeated their opponents, and gone on to record nothing but victories. While that was all well and good, the problem was that three of them were too good at it.

For the most part, their fights had been stupidly one-sided affairs Not just had those three put down their opponents rather quickly, they usually ended up making their opponents look like fools in the process. He'd been watching his fighters, ones who had been working for him for ages, being humiliated and beaten in front of the crowds. Now there were rumblings from the other fighters and murmurs of discontent from the ticket buying crowds. He could only wonder what would be happening to the sales of footage from the fights.

Initially, he was reluctant to act. After all, this was supposed to be a recreational club, not a business. Strictly speaking, they'd done nothing wrong. They hadn't broken any rules (Not that there were many to break), so he couldn't just ban them. He couldn't just throw them up against the club's heavy hitters without a valid excuse to put what were, after all, amateurs up against them. Then an idea had formed. He knew a few fighters who were immediately available who, while not heavy hitters, could probably do the job. While their abilities weren't that much better, they did posses better Zoids.

Now all he had to do was wait. Tonight should be very, very good.

A knock on his door shook him out of his thoughts. "What is it?" He snapped.

"Sorry to interrupt, boss." A nameless flunky said as he entered. "But, um, one of tonight's fighters, Kaysia, has had to cancel. She apparently, uh, broke her ankle on the way in."

"Damn it!" Russof shouted. Kaysia had been scheduled to go up against Rory, the irritatingly keen and lucky Command Wolf pilot. "Right. Not a problem." He breathed deeply. "Stay calm, stay calm. Do not panic."

"So, uh, what do you want us to do, boss?"

"We'll just have to get another fighter, won't we?" He replied, irritated that he had to spell it all out to the man.

"Yeah, but, um, who?"

"I believe I can answer that question." The voice echoed through the room, accompanied by a sudden chill. Both Russoff and the lackey spun around to see a shape standing in the doorway. It was roughly man-sized, but wearing a long, dark cloak and hood that completely concealed its identity. Smoke billowed in from the doorway, curling around the base of his cloak.

"W-who are you?" Russoff stammered out.

"That is not important." The man replied. "What I want is to fight the Command Wolf piloted by the man you call Rory Stonewall. I will dispose of him for you."

"And…" Russof replied. "Um, yeah, I'm sure that can be arranged."

"Excellent." The man replied. "My Zoid will arrive here shortly. I will trust you to make all the arrangements for it. When the time comes, I will fight." He turned to leave.

"But..." Russoff shouted. "Who are you?"

"I am..." He began. "Rory knows who I am. That is all you need to know." Without saying anything else, the man turned to leave. He stepped out the door and stumbled, accompanying by a clattering, crashing sound. The man swore, then hobbled off.

After a minute, Russoff and the lackey peered out the door. There was no sign of the mysterious man's presence, save for a knocked-over bucket of dry ice on the floor.

-----

Since last week's fight, Sandra had noticed a definite change in the atmosphere in the locker room. She, Vic and Rick were sitting alone on a bench on one side of the room. Everyone else was sitting on the other side of the room, muttering darkly amongst themselves. The only exception to this was Anistasia, the red-haired Iron Kong pilot who was sitting in the middle of the room, ignoring both groups. Yep, we've managed to make some enemies, she thought. Probably pissed off everyone in the building by now.

"So, who do you think we're up against tonight?" Rick asked, stretching.

"No idea." Sandra said.

"How about that guy?" Vic asked, pointing to a random pilot. "I bet I could take him out easy. yeah." She sighted him with a finger gun. "Bang."

"Polly, cut that out." Sandra snarled. "You don't want to antagonize them any more then we have already."

"Awww..." She looked sulky.

"Gee, someone got up on the wrong side of bed this morning." Rick muttered. "What's eating you all of a sudden?"

"What's up, you big tool," she began. "Is that this whole plan isn't working. We've been here three weeks so far and haven't found Sel yet. Instead we've been engaged in a series of stupid illegal battles for other people to get their jollies off." She snarled through firmly clenched teeth.

"But they've been easy battles." Rick replied.

"Fun too." Vic added.

"And it's been far easier then when we were out in the desert." Rick added.

"Well, yeah." Sandra admitted. 'But that doesn't disguise the fact that what we're doing is illegal and immoral."

"And fattening." Vic added.

Sandra glared at her from behind her mirrored sunglasses. "You know what I mean."

"Don't worry, Cass." Rick said. "We'll probably meet Sel at the big end of month beat up. We can talk to her then, beat the snot out of some poor saps and then go home."

Sandra muttered something. She just wasn't convinced that it was going to work out that easily.

A door into the room opened, a technician with a clipboard entering. "Polly Page!" He called out. "Report to the Zoid bay immediately!'

Vic stood. "Paging Polly Page." she muttered, and sniggered.

"Hey, they didn't call your opponent." Sandra said.

"Maybe I'm fighting myself. Mirror match. Red palette swap." Vic replied.

"I don't like it." Sandra stated.

"Maybe he's already standing by. Maybe he got here early." Rick said. "Don't worry about it."

"You sure?" Sandra said.

"I'm fine." Vic replied. "I'm not him."

-----

In the last hour and a half, Russof had arranged to have his on-site office meticulously cleaned. He'd gone to great lengths to make sure that there was no sign of the dry ice bucket, or its mysterious owner. He'd put on his best suit, and made sure that Mark had something decent to wear. In the end, he'd thrown one of his spare suits at Mark. It was way too wide around the waist, but for the moment it would have to do.

If all was going to schedule, Polly page would be entering the arena ion a few minutes. And his special visitor should be here about... now.

There was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" He replied in the nicest voice he could muster.

"Ms Snow for ya, boss." The flunky on the other side replied. Russoff winced. He'd have to remember to fire him afterwards.

"Show her in." He blurted out, trying (and failing) to be as casual as possible. Amelia entered, wearing a more revealing gown then the one she'd worn when he'd last met her at the club. He tried for "Pleased to see you again." but instead blurted out something along the lines of "pleasedboobshipslegsyou".

"It's a pleasure to see you again too." Mark added.

"Why thank you." Amelia replied, taking his hand. "It's so good to meet such a polite young man."

Russof stammered then regained is composure. "Thankyou for, erm, coming here tonight." He began.

"And thank you for the invitation." Amelia replied. "I have been looking forward to this."

He pushed a chair over to where she was standing. "Thanks again for your interest. I'd really like to see what you have to offer."

"As would I." She replied, sitting. "I wanted to see, first hand the sort of pilots and Zoids you have and how they fare in battle. From that I should be able to see if you have what I want for my men."

"I've got some of my best fighters in action tonight." He began. "Tonight's fights promise to be very interesting."

"I'm sure it will be." She said and smiled.

-----

Vic's Gunsniper happily strode into the arena, looking around. As yet, her opponent was yet to appear, and the door was yet to open. A clanking noise behind her caught her attention. It was the doors to her hanger bay closing. So she was out here on her own with no retreat once her opponent was revealed. Groovy.

"Introducing first, in the blue corner, Polly Page piloting a Gunsniper!" The announcer called out.

The clanking of the other hanger bay caught her attention. A squat, armored shape crawled out form the bay, a mess of legs pulling it across the arena floor. A large beam cannon and a missile pod sat on top of its heavily armored yet compact body, and a pair of small sensor eyes glared menacingly at her.

Could it be? She thought as the Zoid pulled itself into the arena and full view, the door slamming shut behind it.

"And her opponent, in the red corner, Cyril Garbo piloting a Seapanther!"

"The sacred Seapanther!" Vic shouted. "What a tragedy this is! I have to fight the mighty sacred Seapanther! This most powerful and devastating Zoid! What am I to do?" Her Gunsniper, having picked up on her mood and tried to interpret it, was waving its arms in the air with a look of despair on its face. "No!"

There was an eerie silence across the arena. Vic had left her Zoid's PA system on.

"Score."

There was a pause. The Announcer finally spoke up. "Contestants, ready… FIGHT!" A siren sounded throughout the arena. Both Zoids immediately took off. Vic played different to her usual approach by breaking to the right, rather then charging in all guns blazing. The Seapanther turned to follow her, opening fire with its large beam cannon. The shot narrowly missed the Gunsniper, which turned towards the Seapanther to reply.

The Gunsniper opened fire with its side-mounted gun pods, the shots peppering the area around the Seapanther to little success. This was followed up with the two short-range gatling guns, who's rounds seemed not to damage the smaller Zoid. "Oh-oh." Vic muttered out loud. "Tough crab."

A half-dozen missiles sprang from the Seapanther's back, striking the Gunsniper and knocking it down to the ground. Vic was thrown around the cockpit, shaken and bruised, but for the most part unharmed. Looking up, she could see the Seapanther crawling towards her.

"Silly little shellfish." She muttered. The Gunsniper leaped to its feet, narrowly avoiding a shot from the Seapanther's beam cannon. "Now to crack you open."

The Gunsniper ran at the Seapanther, firing its chest and arm mounted guns. The Seapanther replied by opening fire with its remaining missiles, spreading fire around the Gunsniper. Vic weaved and dodged, coming through the volley more or less unscathed. Nearing point blank-range, Vic leaped over the enemy Zoid, her Gunsniper's toe claws tearing deep scars in the Seapnather's armoured hull and slashing off the top sensor pod.

As she landed, she turned and opened fire with the top-mounted missile launchers. The missiles, however, seemed to fall short of their intended mark, tearing up the ground behind the Seapanther. The small Zoid turned around, and resumed its advance on Vic's Gunsniper – only to snag one of its legs in the large crater she'd left in the concrete.

"Gotcha, sucker." Vic said, and smiled. The Gunsniper ran at the Seapanther, then leaped onto its back. Before it could react, it leaped off again, pushing the smaller Zoid forward, and pitching it bodily into the crater. The Seapanther thrashed around, then stopped, clearly stuck.

The Gunsniper turned to stand over the stuck machine, its pilot grinning like an idiot. "Your crab's stuck. Heh… Crabstick…" She burst out laughing again.

A siren blared through the arena. "The, uh winner, by um, immobilising the opponent's Zoid is, uh, Polly Page!"

-----

Russoff glared at the arena below him, his mouth hanging open. "Wha…" He spluttered. "Wha… What happened?"

"I think the Gunsniper won." Mark replied.

"You're right." Amelia said. "That was a very interesting and, well, unusual match." She smiled. 'I can't wait to see the next one."

"Yes, the, uh, next match." He swallowed loudly. The mysterious man would be on next. He was praying that he would be able to deal with Rory. Maybe the Seapanther pilot had just been unlucky. Yeah. That had to be it. And Page must have thrown him with her little rant at the start of the fight. That was probably it.

"Is something the matter?" Amelia asked.

"No, it's, its fine. It's all fine. Really."

-----

"Well that was weird." Sandra said, looking up at the TV. "I've seen that guy in the locker rooms once or twice, but they kept him out of here for tonight."

"Maybe they didn't want Vi- er, Polly to frighten him before the big fight." Rick replied. "I can't say I blame them for that."

"Yeah." Sandra muttered. "And the Seapanther is an odd but effective choice to fight her. It's heavily armoured and low to the ground, which makes her targeting a little off." She noted. "I guess they didn't expect Polly to try clawing it."

"Who would?" Rick asked. "She rarely uses her Gunsniper's claws or teeth anyway."

"God point." Sandra said. "Still, I am worried by what we might be going up against later."

"Ah, don't worry about it." Rick replied. "We've beaten everything we've taken on so far. Pol just whacked her opponent."

"Like a Goomba" Vic added as she sat down next to the pair of them. "Goomba… Goomba"

"…thanks for that." Sandra muttered.

The technician and clipboard reappeared. "Rory Stonewall!" He called out. "You're on next. Or something."

"Or something?" Sandra asked. "That sounds bad."

"Maybe they want me to do doggie tricks." Rick replied.

"Maybe they need someone to get the Seapanther out of the hole." Sandra dryly added.

"Crabstick." Vic finished, then sniggered. "He was not worthy of the Sacred Seapanther"

"Well, I'll see you guys in a minute." Rick said as he stood up. "I doubt this will take long."

"Don't be so confident." Sandra said. "Just because you've faced morons so far doesn't mean you'll get some dumb tool on this round."

"But the odds to favour it." Rick said as he left.

"I hate it when he's right." Sandra muttered.

-----

Rick's Command Wolf strode out into the arena. He looked around, taking in the details. This place, he noted, wasn't too much different form the other arenas he'd fought in. That could make it easy for him – he could simply re-use the backgrounds from scene to scene. Simple. "Introducing first, in the blue corner, Rory Stonewall piloting a Command Wolf!" The announcer called out.

He looked across to see that the other entrance was closed. No sign of his opponent yet. Ah well. He'd expected that after Vic's fight. Now to just sit back and see what happened. As he watched, the other hanger door slowly opened revealing… long, slender, pointy looking mechanical legs.

"And his opponent, umm…" The announcer seemed to be at a complete loss for worlds. "The Mysterious stranger, piloting…"

The Zoid walked out into the arena. Rick had to admit, it was the strangest Zoid he'd ever seen in person. Its lower half was a Gargantulus, minus the head. The head's place was taken, however, by the torso, arms and head of a Godos. The whole Zoid was coloured a dark grey colour, with selected black and red highlights.

"Um, what's that?" Rick asked nobody in particular.

"Surprised to see me, Rory?" A voice boomed out from the other Zoid. "You didn't expect me to follow you here, did you? Hiding in amongst these people, pretending to be a Zoid duellist, changing your name… you thought you'd lost me, hadn't you, Rory?"

"Um, who are you?" Rick asked.

"Fool! It is I, your arch enemy, Darth Pants!" He shouted.

"Pants?" Rick asked. "Hey! Long time no see, buddy! How are you?"

"Vengeful!" Pants shouted back. "I have waited a long time for this, Rory! And now, with this, my latest ultimate creation, the Gordogantulus-"

"Gordogantulus?"

"The fusion of Godos and Gargantulus." Pants patiently explained.

"So wouldin't it be a Godogantulis?" Rick asked. There was a long pause.

"Fine! With my latest ultimate creation, the Godogantulus, I will have my revenge!" There was a long pause. "Well?" Pants shouted. "What are you all waiting for? Start the damn match!"

"Uhhh…. Right. Um, contestants, ready…" The announcer nervously began. "Fight!"

The siren sounded, with the two Zoids running straight at each other. The longer range on Rick's cannons allowed him to get the first shots in. Pants' nimble Zoid evaded him, however, by simply slipping sideways out of the line of fire.

"You fool!" Pants shouted. "I've analysed our previous battles! I've studied the way you fight! And I have created this machine to counter your range adva- HURK!" Pants was cut off as his Zoid stumbled on the crater left by Vic's missiles. The Godogantulus stumbled and tripped, rolling over in a mess of legs.

"Yeah, but when you fall over, you're still a target." Rick shouted back. The command wolf opened fire, blasting several legs off one side of the fallen Zoid. The Godogantulus thrashed around wildly, trying to right itself to no avail.

"Damn you!" Pants shouted. "I will not be beaten like this!" The Zoid managed to right itself, only to topple over due to the lack of legs. "Aaargh!" The Godogantulus flailed around wildly on the arena floor, its arms and legs writing in the air.

The announcer nervously began. "The, uh, winner, by immobilising the opponents Zoid, is Rory Stonewall."

"You can sound the siren now." Rick added.

"Um, thanks."

-----

"A Darth." Amelia said. "Very, very interesting. And certainly his Zoid was… It was unique."

"Yrs." Rusoff muttered.

"I must say that this has been a most interesting night. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Russoff couldn't think of anything to say, so he just sank lower in his seat.

-----

Sandra clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, snarling. She wanted to scream. "They… put him up against…"

Vic grinned. "That was pants." She sniggered. "It was completely pants."

"Aaaagh!" Sandra shouted out. A few of the fighters over in their huddle looked back at her then went back to ignoring them. "Those idiots! How could they do that?"

"Maybe he looked scarier on paper." Vic replied. "Maybe they mistook him for someone else."

"Damn it." She felt like shouting. "I hate it when he's right. This will mean that my opponent will be some complete and utter tool fairy who's only skill is to make me look like a complete and utter tool for beating him up. "

"Oh look. They're filling the hole in." Vic added, peering up at the screen.

"Great. That way he can't trip over and kill himself." She muttered.

A woman walked over to the pair of them. Tall and muscular, she had pale skin, blue eyes and red hair. "I couldn't help but overhear the pair of you."

"It's hard to be quiet when you're screaming with rage." Sandra replied.

She sat down next to Sandra. "I take it you're not too happy with the way this place is run, right?" Sandra nodded.

"You could say that."

"These people are idiots." Vic replied. "But funny."

"I've been watching the way the pair of you and that other guy fight." She continued. "You don't strike me as the usual sort of riff-raff that you find in a place like this. You're professionals, right?"

"There's nothing professional about us." Vic said, sniggering.

"Ignore her." Sandra said. "The answer is, yes, we are professionals despite all appearances to the contrary. We normally don't do this. I'm guessing you don't do this either."

"What do you normally do then?"

"Run around in the wastelands and shoot things for money." Sandra said. "That sort of thing."

"And I write comic books." Rick added, walking in.

"He writes them in crayon." Vic added.

"And you?" Sandra asked.

"The same, more or less." The woman replied.

"So why the curiosity?" Rick asked.

"As I said, I'm not too fond of the way things are run around here." She said. "I'm planning something for next week's event to shake the place up and do something about it."

Sandra raised a conspiratorial eyebrow. "And how does this affect us?"

"What I'm looking for are some pilots I can reply on to support me for what I'm doing next week."

Rick smiled. "So… you're looking for troublemakers, right? You found it. We're some of the best people around for causing trouble."

"It's our middle name." Vic said. "We share it around."

He woman looked over at her, a confused look on her face.

"So what you're saying is that you're going to try to do a lot of damage at next week's event and you want to know if we can help you out." Sandra replied. "So, and you'll forgive me for being pushy, what's in it for us?"

"I guess getting rid of the management isn't enough for you?"

"We prefer to see tangible, material rewards." Rick said. "I guess we're just shallow and superficial there."

"Money gooood." Vic added.

The woman looked around. "There may be trouble after next week. I can guarantee that you can stay out of it if you help me. Think of it as being a mercenary contract like you would normally be involved in."

Sandra, Rick and Vic looked at each other. "What do you think?" Rick asked.

"Hmm… It's getting involved in something I'm not that interested yet actively loathe." Sandra said. "Hard to call."

"We could break stuff." Vic replied. "Lots of stuff."

"'sides," Rick added. "Figure that whatever happens could have repercussions for us dependant on what side we're on." He shrugged. "As I figure it, we've already cheesed off the management of this place. I can't see any future benefit in staying on their good side."

"So we break stuff?" Vic asked.

"Let's think about it." Sandra stood. "Tell you what, we'll think it over and let you know at tonight's piss-up." Sandra said as she spied the hanger tech entering. "I'm about to find out if the universe really does hate me."

-----

"Here we go." Sandra muttered to herself. She checked the systems for the millionth time, making sure that all her Zoid's systems were functioning. She felt a twinge of apprehension in the back of her mind. Great. Now even Spud was nervous. "Can't say I blame you. Rick and Vic are being tools. They refuse to think that they got stupidly lucky." There was a long pause. "And I'm still talking to my Zoid. Great."

The hanger door opened, showing the outside arena. It was empty, as she had expected. Someone's out to get us, she thought. Some tool has decided that we're not playing by our rules. No way could their putting Rick up against Pants a coincidence. I guess I just have to face my opponent and try to deal with them as best as I can.

"Introducing first, in the blue corner, Cassandra Black piloting her Shield Liger!"

The other hanger opened. From the shadows, she could make out a shape similar to her Liger's. Similar size, four legged stance… but something about it looked, well wrong.

"And her opponent, in the red corner, the Kid, piloting his modified Liger Zero!"

Liger Zero? She thought. Modified means it's got one of the armour sets on so… She quickly ran the odds through her head. Jaeger: Not good odds. Schneider: Not good odds. Panzer: A whole world of hurt and pain and not good odds. The Liger strode out into the arena. Sandra had to blink twice to make sure what she was seeing was in fact there.

It was a Liger Zero. More to the point, it was a Liger Zero wearing the head armour (and blades) from the Schneider; the leg armour and missile pods form the Panzer and the boosters from the Jaeger. She couldn't see what the tail was carrying. She wasn't sure she wanted to. The Liger looked at her with an expression, which, to her said "Dear god. Kill me now."

A burst of laughter came from the Liger's PA. "What do you think of my customised Lygar Zero?" The pilot asked, his unusual accent colouring his words. "It is teh kewlest Zoid evar!" This was followed by another burst of laughter.

Sandra looked at the Liger Zero again. "I know how you feel, mate." She said, and sighed.

"Contestants, Ready?" The announcer began. Sandra had to give him credit. A lesser man would have given up or gone nuts by now." Fight!"

The two Ligers sprang up from their starting positions. Sandra knew there was no way she could take that… thing on in head-to-head combat, so she veered sharply to the left. The opponent used his back-mounted boosters to close the distance then make a hard turn straight towards her Zoid.

Sandra knew what that meant. The enemy Zoid had enough of the Schneider armour to use its five head-mounted blades. This meant that it could skewer her in an instant. If she let it. Sandra opened up the throttle, veering to the right to avoid the Liger's charge. The enemy pilot responded with another sharp turn, which sent the liger skidding across the landscape, its feet scrabbling for purchase on the floor.

"Ah." She thought. The Liger's mess of components were far from perfect. While fine individually, they were designed to act as a complete package. One of the things it lacked were the numerous stabilisers used by the Jaeger armour to control it during high-speed turns. So if I keep running, Sandra thought, I could have him. She opened fire with Spud's weapons turret and tail gun, peppering her opponent's front end with fire.

The Liger Veered off course, skidding wildly as it went. In desperation, the pilot opened fire with the leg-mounted missiles. Most of them flew around wildly, thrown off course by their launcher's erratic movement. Several struck home, however, hitting Spud's flank.

Sandra gritted her teeth, trying to ride out the impacts. "Okay, Spud, here we go." She threw the Liger for a tight turn, then charged at the enemy. The two side mounted missile launchers deployed, spraying the enemy Zoid with fire. Several of the rockets hit, gouging armour off the hip-mounted launcher boxes. The other Liger spun around again, trying to follow her.

"Okay, Spud, this one's for the game." She span around, charging at the Liger again, firing the impact cannon at it. Her opponent reacted just as she'd expected him to. He deployed the five forward blades for a head-on charge. Those blades were supposed to be enough to punch through even Deathsaurer armour, and would easily make mincemeat of Spud, shield or no shield.

At the last possible second, Sandra veered away again. Her opponent missed the opportunity and shot straight past her, ploughing headlong into the wall. Sandra skidded Spud around, glaring at the enemy Zoid.

The Liger Zero tried to scrabble backwards in an effort to get its head out of the wall, but to no avail.

"Dumbarse." Sandra said. "Now, here's your choice, toolboy. You can give up now and live with having made a public idiot of yourself, or you can let me beat you up a little more and then surrender when you realise there's nothing you can do about it. It's your choice. I'd advise the former, but for some reason, I'd prefer the latter."

"This is soooooo unfair!" The enemy pilot shouted. "Yoo are such a lamar! You cheap cheat! I could totally own yoo easy!"

"That's big words coming form a man who's head is stuck in a wall." Sandra replied. "However, if it's a fight you want…" Spud growled angrily.

"Umm…" He began. "I surrender?"

"Good boy." Sandra said, and smiled. Well that wasn't so bad after all.

The Liger Zero snarled a few times, then finally gave up. The various components of its armour disengaged from its hull, leaving it free to pull its head out from the wall. Once free, the "naked" Liger shook itself off and roared.

"If I was you, mate, I'd dump him too." Sandra added.

-----

Amelia turned towards Russoff, who was trying to shrink as far back into his chair as possible. "Well, I must say that was interesting." She began.

"Really?" he squeaked. "It was?"

"You were right about your best pilots being on tonight." She continued. "Their performance was quite spectacular."

"They were?" He said, clambering to his feet.

"Yes." She said as she stood. "The Gunsniper, Command Wolf and Shield Liger were the sort of opponents I've been looking for so my men have something to train against."

"Yes, well..." He began. "Those three. Yes, well, they are some of the best ones I have. Certainly they are, as yet, undefeated. Yes."

"Excellent." Amelia replied. "I can see that they would prove to be a challenge to my men."

"Well, you should join us here next week." He said. "I'll be putting them up against some of my other best pilots." He emphasised the 'other'. "That should be worth seeing."

"I shall have to." She said. "I am enjoying this sport."

"Tell you what…" He turned towards Mark, who was staring down at the arena. "Mark?"

"Yes, boss?" Mark asked, enthusiastically leaping to his feet.

Russoff threw him a phone. "Call the Palitoy plant. Tell them that next week I will be entertaining in my personal booth. And make sure that the champagne is chilled."

"Yes sir!" He enthusiastically shouted as he ran out of the room.

Russoff turned back to Amelia. "Sorry about that. I thought I'd, uh, plan in advance. So everything was perfect for next week's big event."

"Good." She replied. "I'm quite looking forward to it."

-----

Club Outre was it is usual mix of overpriced drinks, horrible lighting and repetitive music. Which meant that Sandra was in a mood to kill. And they were only just in the door.

"What did you say her name was?" Sandra shouted. She'd wanted to spend as little time here as possible, but their new-found friend meant that she may not have that choice.

"Anastasia somethingarother." Rick replied.

"You're a real help." Sandra replied. "You don't know anything about her beyond that?"

"She pilots an Iron Kong." He offered.

"Monkey!" Vic said, cheerfully. Worryingly such.

"Great. So if a giant robot ape is squatting nearby, we'll know it's her." Sandra said, angrily.

"What?" Rick asked. 'I talked to her once. It's not like she went out or posed for design sketches or anything. Not that I'd mind if she did, mind you."

"You probably say that to all the tall redheads you meet." Vic added.

There was a long pause. "Well… yeah." Rick finally admitted.

Sandra shook her head. "Don't tell me. I don't want to know."

"So are we going to go through with this?" Rick asked.

"After what I've seen here, we should make as much of a mess as possible" Sandra explained. "If I know the way these things go, that'll probably give us the opportunity to get to Sel and finally find out what the frell she's doing here, and then get the frell out of here."

"Hey." Vic muttered. "There."

Peering through the throngs, Sandra could make out a woman talking to a tall, dark-haired man in a longcoat. She looked like Anastasia, but with the lighting in this place it could be anyone. On the other hand, Vic's eyes were remarkably good and she had a disturbing eye for detail.

The three of them barged their way through the mass of pilots and hanger-onerers to where she was, managing to beat their way through just after the man had left. "What do you reckon?" Rick asked. "Another conspirator?"

"Could be." Sandra muttered. "And a tall one at that. Why are we surrounded by tall people wherever we go?"

"I'm not tall." Vic added. "Maybe I do it to everyone else."

"Didn't get a good look at him, did you?" Sandra asked. "I can barely see a thing with these damned glasses on.

"Take them off." Rick said.

"And ruin my cover?" She asked. "Do you know how hard it is to conceal this patch and the scars?"

Anastasia spotted them and turned to face them. "Glad you could make it." She began. "I saw your performance tonight, Cassandra."

"It was horrible." She muttered.

"That kid had no place in that arena." Anastasia muttered. "And certainly not in that Zoid." She looked over the three of them in turn. "So have you thought about what I said?"

"Definitely." Sandra replied. "And we're all for it."

-----


	36. Fight Club Sudden Death

Palitoy Weapons Plant

Tempus, Chronos

1800 hours

Sandra had to admit, of all the dank, damp, smelly converted offices that she'd used as a change room since joining Fight Club, the Palitoy one was definitely the nicest. That is to say, it was still dank, damp and smelly, just less so.

She'd gotten ready as quick as possible and joined the rest of the pilots in the main waiting room. The gap between the three of them and everyone else seemed to have only widened since last week. Clearly the humiliating defeats she and Vic had inflicted upon their number (she didn't count Rick's thrashing of Pants since he seemed not to be a local fixture) had not gone down well at all. Only Anistasia stood near them, and even then that was because she was apparently being excluded as well.

From what she'd gathered, there was a second change room where the other half of tonight's fighters, the ones that they would be facing, were also waiting. This meant that she wouldn't get to see Sel until the inevitable post-fight party.

Rick sat down next to her. "So how are you feeling about tonight?"

"Great." She muttered. "I'm still trying to decide if tonight's opponent will be another tool like everyone I've faced so far, or some boofhead who's going to completely tool up me and Spud out of some sense of vengeance for all the carnage I've inflicted on his beer buddies thus far." She sighed. "Probably the latter."

"Don't sweat." Rick said. "We beat up three tools tonight like we always do then we find Sel and we get the hell out of here."

"Rory, you are way too casual about this."

"It's my philosophy in life." He replied. "Don't worry, take it easy and sleep a lot."

"Right." Sandra felt like screaming or bashing Rick's head into the wall. So instead she thought about something else. "So do you have any idea what Anastasia's up to?"

"She said that we should be ready with our Zoids for when she goes out for her match." Rick replied.

"Assuming that they don't get totally tooled." Sandra muttered.

"Relax, it'll be fine."

"You are way too optimistic, you know that?" She glared at him. "And where is Polly anyway?"

"Right here."

Sandra spun around in her seat to see Vic standing there, glaring in her usual odd way. She was holding onto a clipboard. "Don't do that." Sandra snarled.

"Do what?" Vic asked, slurring the 'what' and trying to look as innocent as possible. Given that she was dressed entirely in black, it didn't work.

"Hey Cass, what've got there?" Rick asked.

"Tonight's run order." She replied. "I stole it form some tech guy. He wasn't using it."

Rick and Sandra shot each other worried glares. "So how does it look?" Sandra asked as she turned back to Vic.

"Interesting." She replied. "Very interesting." She handed the clipboard over to Sandra.

"Well?" Rick asked, breathing over Sandra's shoulder. "How does it look?"

"Oh dear." Sandra said. "Damn. Tool. Frell it. This is…"

"Interesting?" Vic replied, and smiled in a cure way. "Told you."

-----

Like everything else in Tempus, the harbour was a polluted wasteland. It had been years since anything larger then pond scum had lived there. Centuries of runoff, waste and straight out dumping had effectively killed it dead. The economic recession had finished off a lot of the activity on the harbour. Several derelict ships, abandoned by companies that had gone under, lay rusting at their wharves.

Tonight, however, something moved in the harbour.

A trio of black shapes moved silently through the fouled water. A few lights from the city reflected off their sleek, curved hulls, picking out details, sensors and weapons. They swam straight towards the industrial district, ignoring everything else in their way. Nobody noticed them, as few people looked at the harbour unless they had to.

The three shapes dived into the murky water, their own sensors and lights illuminating the depths in an eerie green shade. After a few minutes searching, they found their objective. A large waste pipe, easily big enough for them to enter. The only obstacle was a rusted grate that was easily clawed aside.

The three forms slipped into the pipe, heading in towards the city.

-----

Russoff nervously paced around his office. He was wearing his best suit, but looking somewhat dishevelled. "Okay, Mark. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to ask you what we have, and you'll tell me if we have it. You got that?"

"Yes sir, Mister Russoff." Mark replied. He was still wearing Rusoff's old suit, which was still too big for him. But he was looking a lot neater. He had a clipboard and pen in his hand.

"Do we have all the fighters here tonight?" he asked, nervously.

"Yes we do." Mark replied calmly as he re-checked an item on the list.

"And do we have an opponent for everyone?" he asked. "No double bookings, nobody without someone to fight?"

"Yes we do." He said, and re-checked the list.

"And does everything make sense?" He asked. "No really, really nonsensical match-ups that I may have made while out of my mind?"

Mark had to glance down at the list twice. "Yes sir."

"Good." He turned to look directly at mark. "Do we have opponents fro…" he paused. "For them?"

"If you mean Black, Stonewall and page, then yes."

"Good!" He shouted. Mark had seen the way he'd been after last week's fights. He hoped things would go better this week. "And do we have cameras? Plenty of people taping all this?"

"Yes sir." Mark replied. 'Every conceivable angle is covered."

"Great." He said. "This is going to be a good night. This is going to be a great night. There is nothing that can go wrong." He turned back to Mark. "Have I forgotten anything?"

"Ms Snow who has been waiting outside for the last five minutes?" Mark asked.

"Snow?!" He shouted, leaping over to loom over Mark. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I did." He replied, meekly. "You said you'd tend to it in a minute."

"Well show her in then!" he said. "Do look okay?"

"You look…" Mark hesitated to say it. "You look fine."

"Good. Good."

Mark walked over to the door, and opened it. He bowed slightly to Amelia as she entered. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"It's perfectly alright." Amelia replied. "I'm sure that you were very busy with making preparations for tonight's event."

"Yes, we were very busty… busy." Russoff replied, stammering.

"I'm sure you were." She smiled. "Several of my pilots are on site tonight, watching the matches. I'm sure they will be… impressed by what you have here."

"They will be. Tits… it's going to be a good night tonight." He continued, all but tripping over himself. Trying to make himself look better, he took her hand and gently steered her towards a large seat. Mark winced.

"Thank you." She said, and sat. "It's good to see that there are some gentlemen left in this world." Make couldn't be sure, but he thought she was looking at him when she said that.

"Trust me, theses are the breast- best seats in the house." Russoff continued, making an arse of himself. "You won't miss a thing form up here."

"Good." She said, glancing at Mark before looking back over the arena itself. "I can tell that this is going to be a very interesting night indeed."

-----

The "big night" had gotten off to an inauspicious start. Rick and Vic had breezed through their opponents in near record times, making them look like complete and utter idiots in the process. Now, abruptly, it was Sandra's turn.

She sat in her Liger's cockpit, activating the Zoid's systems. The instant she established the neural connection, Sandra could feel the apprehension coming off her liger. "What's up with you?" She asked. It growled back at her. "You don't want to do this, right? Yeah, me neither. But we have to."

For some strange reason, she was able to talk about what was bothering her to her Zoid. Whether it was because it couldn't talk back or because it didn't wander off or try to change the subject, it seemed to help. Or maybe the Liger was, in its own way, easier to talk to then Rick or Vic.

The arena doors opened up, revealing the plant's floor. It differed from the others only with the presence of a large metal plate on the floor, which she suspected covered an old drain or the like. She also noticed that there was no sign of her opponent. I guess they didn't want me to mess up their big night, she thought.

The liger slowly strode out onto the arena floor. "Introducing first, in the blue corner, Cassandra Black piloting her Shield Liger!" the ever-enthusiastic announcer called out.

The other door slowly rumbled open. Well, this is it. No turning back now, Sandra thought as she watched the Zoid emerge. She glared at the heavily armoured, menacing black form of her opponent.

"And her opponent, in the Red Corner, the Black Queen piloting a Darkhorn!"

-----

"Oh my." Amelia said, leaning forwards in her seat. "This should be very interesting indeed."

"I'm glad you're enjoying it." Russoff replied. He was trying to figure out a way to peer down the front of her dress without looking like he was doing it. So far he was having no luck.

"These two are both very good." Mark said.

"I know." She replied, dismissively. "I've followed both of their careers for a while. Personally, I've been waiting to see this one for a long, long time."

-----

Sandra flicked open her communicator, guessing at the proper frequency for Sel's Zoid. It had worked well enough in past, so it should work now. After a few seconds of fidgeting, she was rewarded with Sel on-screen, sitting in the cockpit of her Zoid. She was wearing a sleeveless uniform that looked to have been stolen from some poor desert thug and had an elaborate pattern painted (At least Sandra hoped it was painted) on her arms and face.

"So." Sandra began. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Yes." Sel replied. "The same. It's a surprise."

"I'd have never figured you to have arena fighting as a hobby." Sandra continued. "Unless you're really here on business."

"Well, yes." Sel said. "But-"

"But you can't tell me, right?" Sandra needled. Sel said nothing. "Yeah, I thought so."

"I'm sorry, Sandra."

"No you're not." Sandra replied. "No you frelling well aren't."

"What do you mean by that?" Sel snapped.

"I mean you've been famously elusive on so many damned details." She said. "Like when we went to the Dark continent to look for Vic. You didn't bother telling Rick or I anything, you just locked us up and hoped we'd stay quiet."

"I was doing my damned job!" Sel shouted back. "You should understand that."

"Right." Sandra said. "I can see how your damned job would preclude letting your friends know what they were getting themselves into?"

"I had too." Sel replied.

"And when you fixed the grievous injuries I'd suffered from that Mammoth you neglected to tell me why or, more to the point, how you people got rid of my appendix scar too!"

"I-"

"Or how about your damned city!" She continued. "Tell me you built that!"

"We-"

"And you said you found that Deathsaurer!" Sandra was in a mood to kill. "Where? How? When? By whom?"

"I couldn't risk you knowing too much." Sel shouted. "I have to protect my people too!"

"Knowing too much?" Sandra snapped. "Fat chance of that. You're great at leaving people out in the cold, you know that? Damn it, do you frelling well treat your own men like this? How much haven't you told them? Do they even know you're here?"

"Yes, damn it, they know it!" Sel shouted. "I'm here doing my damned duty to try and protect the thousands of lives that are depending on me!"

"It's that damned journal, isn't it?" Sandra replied, angrily. "It's the same damned one you were so desperate to retrieve before. You keep tooling things up. Every time you think you've got it, you let it slip away. Isn't that right?"

"Well..." Sel began.

"Thought so." Sandra said. "So we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way."

"Which is?" Sel asked reluctantly.

"The easy way is that you tell us and we help you. The hard way is that you don't tell us and we do our own thing and probably make a mess of whatever you try to do." Sandra said. "The choice is yours."

"I'm sorry, Sandra." Sel said. "I really am. But-"

"But you can't."

"No."

"Fine." Sandra replied. "We fight."

-----

"Well this is… different." Amelia said, clearly bored.

"I… uhh…" Russoff replied, glancing between her and the arena. The Shield Liger and Darkhorn were both staring at each other, neither moving. He then looked at mark, who shrugged. "Excuse me." He did not need this right now. He did not need this after the first two matches. He did not need this tonight.

"No need to hurry on my account." Amelia replied, clearly bored.

Russoff pulled out a phone and frantically jabbed some numbers into it. "Listen up you fool. Start the fight now before it gets really, really ugly. You understand?""

-----

"Contestants… ready?" The announcer asked, very nervously. "Um… Fight?" There was a thirty-second pause, then the siren sounded, seemingly a lot quieter then normal.

"You have had this coming for a long time, Sel." Sandra said as her Liger slowly advanced.

"Fine." Sel replied. "I can take it." Her Darkhorn slowly advanced on the Liger.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this for."

"I can take a good guess." Sel replied.

The two Zoids stopped in the middle of the arena, glaring at each other.

"You ready?" Sel asked.

"Do your worst." Sandra replied. Closing the channel, she sighed. "You ready for this, Spud?"

The Darkhorn walked right up to the Shield Liger, and gently tapped it with its nose horn. The Shield Liger rolled over onto its side and thrashed its legs in the air.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. The Liger stopped thrashing.

"Umm…" The announcer stammered. "The, uh, winner by, uh, disabling the opponent's Zoid is the Black Queen." The siren weakly bleated out again.

-----

"Different." Amelia said. "Interesting. Not quite what I had expected."

"It was?" he asked.

"Oh yes." She replied. "I can only hope that the rest of the night will be as… surprising."

"Yes well." He looked around nervously. "If you'll excuse me, I just have to attend to a few things." He darted out of the office.

"No need to hurry on my account." She said, then sat back in her seat.

"Can I, um, get you something?" Mark asked. He was hovering nervously over her.

"A mineral water would be fine." She replied. He skittered off to the small bar fridge. "So what is it you do around here, Mark?"

"Nothing really." He replied. "Well, nothing at the moment. Mister Russoff says I could be a big name in the business one of these days.

"So how did you end up working for him?" She asked.

"Actually, I used to be a mercenary in the wastelands." He explained. "Mister Russoff was a friend of my father's. Something…" he trailed off. "The rest of my unit was destroyed. I, um, I wandered around for a bit after that before ending up here. Mister Russoff took me in and got me a gob."

"Really?" She replied. "Tell me more."

-----

It had taken the arena's Gustav a few minutes to drag Spud back to the hanger. Once back in there and placed amongst the other Zoids that had been defeated that night, he arbitrarily decided to "come back to life", rolling over onto his feet and standing up.

Sandra had retreated back to the locker room. Despite the relative ease of the battle, the shouting at Sel had been rather draining. She regarded Sel as a good friend, but at the same time felt that she did need a good shouting at. When she entered, she noticed Anastasia talking with Rick and Vic.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Sandra began as she walked over to them, ignoring the angry glares from everyone else in the room. "My match went for longer then I expected."

"That was quite a performance you put on out there." Anastasia replied. "Do you care to explain what's going on?"

"Horn poke of death." Vic added. "Time to piss off the fans."

"A small disagreement between friends." Sandra replied. "But we've got it all sorted out now."

"Whatever." Anastasia said. "I was about to go over the plan with Rory and Polly here, but I'll fill you in as well." She looked around, making sure nobody was listening in. "Russoff bought a lot more Zoids here tonight then, strictly speaking, he needed."

Sandra looked over the other pilots in the room. She could see the three tools they boofed on their first night. Those three tools didn't deserve to be at a high-profile night like this. "I can see that. It's a pain with your plans, right?"

"He's probably going to use them as extra muscle or security if anything bad happens." Anastasia continued.

"It already has." Rick replied. "I'd say after Cass's match, the crowd are gonna be out for blood."

"Poke." Vic muttered. "Pokey poke poke."

"What I want you three to do is be ready with your Zoids. When I enact my plan-"

"Is there a secret signal?" Rick interrupted. "Some subtle gesture? Some way we'll know when it's the time to act?"

"You'll know when it is, trust me." Anastasia replied.

"Violence explosions fiery death kind of signal." Vic muttered. "I can dig."

"So what do we do?" Sandra asked.

"Simple." Anastasia replied. "Should any of the other Zoids try to get involved in the fight or try anything stupid, you stop them."

"So it's a basic 'thwack 'em if they try something silly' job." Rick replied. "I can handle that."

"Whack them like Goombas." Vic added, emphasising the last part.

"So when do you go?" Sandra asked.

"Soon." Anastasia replied. "It's probably best if you get ready now."

Vic sprang to her feet. "Let's go. Break stuff time. Its good."

"You can't doubt her enthusiasm" Sandra added, shrugging as she walked off.

-----

As he had been 'disabled', Spud was in a different hanger to Rick and Vic's Zoids. After the night's fights, the Zoids in there would be taken for repairs at their owner's expense. Sandra could only wonder what a tech would make of Spud's current condition as she made her way towards where he was standing.

Surprisingly enough, there was somebody else waiting there for her. Black hair, dark skin, black clothes. Natch.

"So what are you doing here?" Sandra asked.

"Helping you out with whatever you're up to." Sel replied. "I figured that maybe I help you and you could help me."

Sandra smiled. "So what made you change your mind?"

"You put up a very convincing argument." Sel replied.

"Knew it." Sandra had often found that shouting was the best way to get things across. "So what are you up to?"

Sel looked around before continuing. "You remember Kandrak's battalion, right?"

"How could I not?" She replied. "I got spread across the landscape and you went nuts."

"Yeah…" Sel muttered. "Anyway, it turns out that one member of the battalion escaped. We think he's how A-X and Colonel Pie-"

"Pie?"

"The commander of that battalion that attacked us." Sel explained. "He was in the Thunder Trictops."

"Ah." Sandra replied. As a result of Vic's little episode, Pie would have to be very dead right now. She had to wonder why every meeting with Sel tended to result in a lot of violence and death. Pure dumb luck? Probably. "And you've found him?"

Sel nodded. "He turned up working for the management of this… association." She explained. "I've been trying to get close to him and bring him in for the last month, but with no luck."

"So instead you're going to make a mess and try to get him in the ensuing chaos?" Sandra asked. Sel nodded in reply. "Makes sense to me."

"An opportunity presented itself that I decided to take advantage of." Sel replied.

"Anastasia Stromberg?"

"You know about her?" Sel asked

"That's why I'm down here. I'm supposed to be helping her do, well, Tomy alone knows what."

"Well, whatever it is she's going to do, I was going to take advantage of it to complete my mission." Sel explained.

"I'll watch your back while you go in." Sandra replied. "Is that what you're asking?"

She nodded. "Thanks."

"It's not a problem." Sandra said. I have a feeling that tonight will be quite interesting."

-----

"Actually, I still have my Rado." Mark continued. "It's stored on site."

Russoff returned to the office looking a little flustered. "Sorry about that." He wheezed. "Just… just trying to get things under control."

"No need to apologise." Amelia replied. "Mark was just telling me about his mercenary days. He's quite an interesting young man."

"Really." Russoff replied, a look of anger on his face. "Well, I'm back and everything's well under control, so we can get on with the night." He glared at Mark. "Can you get me a spare communicator? I seem to have mislaid mine."

"I don't think we have any in here." Mark replied.

"Then go and get me one." Russof snapped. Mark sped out of the office. "Sorry about that. All vital work in keeping the place running.

"No doubt." Amelia replied with a smug look on her face.

"Now keep your eyes on the arena. This next match promises to be a great one."

-----

Anastasia's Iron Kong strode into the arena, its massive bulk dominating the empty stadium. It wasn't a normal Iron Kong; it had been fitted with a CP-11 manoeuvre thruster pack, as well as the additional missiles, beam cannons and forearm guns from an Iron Kong PK. Short of a monster like a Deathsaurer, very few Zoids could stand against it.

"Introducing first in the blue Corner, Anastasia Stromberg piloting an Iron Kong!" The announcer called out. Iron Kong was an understatement.

The other door opened, revealing a different form. The Zoid that emerged was a black bipedal dinosaur that appeared to consist mainly of teeth, tubes and guns. "And, her opponent, Matt Black piloting a Deadborder!"

The two Zoids stood facing each other. "So, are you ready?" Anastasia asked.

"I am and so are my friends." The black haired, green-eyed pilot replied. "Are yours?"

"They are."

"Contestants, Ready?" The announcer began.

"They should be hare about-" Anastasia began.

"FIGHT!"

"Now!"

A section of the roof collapsed as a second iron Kong, identical to Anastasia's crashed through it. The Kong landed in the middle of the arena, between its partner and the Deadborder. "Nobody move!" The second Iron Kong's pilot called out over the Zoid's PA system. "You are all under arrest! Do not attempt to leave the building!"

-----

Russoff looked down at the events unfolding on the floor below then grabbed the communicator off Mark. "All units!" He shouted. "It's a raid! Go, go, go!"

Amelia looked around nervously, then turned to Mark. "I need to get out of here!" She said, frantically. "If I get caught, there could be…" she trailed off. "I'd be in a lot of trouble."

"Come on." Mark said, taking her hand. "If we can get to my Rado, we can get away. I don't think they're planning on any flying Zoids being present."

"Thanks." She replied, swallowing and then smiling nervously. "Show me the way."

The pair of them ran from the room, leaving Russoff standing there, shouting orders.

-----

"What was that?" Rick asked, hearing the loud thud from outside the hanger.

"The Zabat-sign." Vic replied. "Munky."

"Wha?" He asked, then saw a closed-circuit screen displaying the current goings-on in the Arena. A second Iron Kong had literally dropped into the arena, and placing everyone under arrest. That was probably Anastasia's signal. "Right. Let's go."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Vic replied as she ran towards her Gunsniper's cockpit. A technician standing by its cockpit moved to stop her, only to receive an elbow in the gut followed by a foot to the face. Next to her, Rick took another one down with a pair of quick punches to his midsection.

"I haven't had to hit anyone since the last editor's meeting." Rick said. "Let's not make a habit of it." He climbed into the Command Wolf's command seat and began reactivating its controls.

"Violence is good for you." Vic replied as she jumped into the Gunsniper.

"Wha?" Rick asked, then span around. In the bay, other Zoids were being powered up. Rick recognised one of them, a twin CP-08 equipped Rev Rapter, as being the Zoid that Vic had fought on her very first night. It had just stepped out of its bay, and was standing almost directly behind Vic. "Behind you!"

"All right! Lunch time!' She called out as, rather unexpectedly, the Gunsiper's tail cannon fired. The Gunsniper, not properly braced, staggered forwards a little, while the Rev Rapter collapsed backwards, a gaping hole torn through its body.

"I'm sure they didn't mean for it to be used that way." He began. "But then, who am I to argue? At least she didn't say anything about it being a fart cannon or the like" The two Zoids ran from the bay into the arena proper.

"Time for round two." Vic continued as she fired the Zoid's side-mounted weapons pods at an unsuspecting Godos. "Just another statistic. Death by Weasel Pod."

Rick looked around at the arena, noting the Deadborder standing next to the two Kongs. "Hey, is that who I think it is?" he fired the Zoid's twin cannons fired at a Barragator that had tried to get into the hanger, tearing armour out of its side.

The panel on the arena floor shook, then ripped free form its housing. Rick watched the hole in the floor expectedly, wondering what was about to happen. Then a shape emerged – the squat, sleek and heavily weaponed form of a Heligunner. A second one followed it, followed by a third carrying a large cannon on its back.

"Yes." Vic replied.

"I, uh, guessed that." Rick added. His Wolf skipped out of the way of a series of shots from a Helcat. Before he could draw a bead on it, however, a volley of fire staggered it, tearing up the feline Zoid's forelegs. Looking around, he could see a Heldigunner next to his Wolf.

"Long time no see." The female pilot began. Rick knew who it was. Bekka Cade, the part-time love of his life and almost as crazy and destructive as Vic. But in a cute way.

"Likewise." He replied. "We have to stop running into each other like this."

"So what have you been up to?" She asked as she fired on the Helcat before the small Zoid could activate its optical camouflage. The enemy crashed to the ground, not moving.

"Not much." Rick replied. "Nothing worth talking about." He swung the Command Wolf's gun to bear on a Molga, before opening fire. "Um, forgive me for saying this, but your Zoid looms, uh, kinda messy."

"We swam in through the sewers." She replied.

"Oh." He paused. "You won't be too upset if I don't stand too close to it."

"It's all good." She replied. "Iggy needs a good wash after this anyway."

"Iggy?"

"What's wrong with Iggy?" She asked. "You call your Zoid Woof, after all."

"Well I guess…" He fired on a Spinosapper that was charging at him. The two cannons struck its back, blasting the twin chainsaws off their mounting. "Lucky shot!" Undeterred, the Spinosapper charged forwards snarling wildly at it. Rick fired again, damaging one of its legs, before a volley of fire from Bekka's Heldigunner knocked it down.

"Hey! You vulched my kill!" He shouted.

"All's fair in love and war." She replied. "Hey, uh, where's the boss?"

"Never mind that." Rick asked. "Where the hell is Sandra?"

-----

The lower half of the Palitoy factory was a maze of darkened tunnels, illuminated by only the occasional light. It was through these tunnels that Russoff moved most of the supplies and equipment needed to maintain, what was in essence, a small army of Zoids. When he'd first come to Russof, Mark had arranged to have his Rado stashed here, figuring that he wasn't likely to need it for a while.

Well, this was definitely a situation that needed it, he thought, Funny how he used it primarily to escape. When he'd been sent by Kandrak to meet Colonel Pie, he'd been running away from the battle where, he presumed, the rest of the unit were wiped out.

He was leading Amelia while holding her hand, guiding her through the darkened tunnels. A part of him felt bad for abandoning mister Russoff like that, but another part wanted to protect this woman at all costs.

"It's not too far ahead!" he shouted. "Just around the next corner."

"That's good." Amelia replied I don't think I coul-" She was cut off as she apparently slipped and fell, landing on her back on the hard concrete floor.

He stopped and turned around. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine she said, coldly." It was then that Mark noticed she had a small gun in her hand. He had no idea where she'd hidden it. Maybe on a thigh holster hidden by her skirt… She stood and looked him in the eye.

"Amelia?"

"Let's not mess around here, Mark." She said. "Quentin's journal. You gave a copy of it to Pie. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have given you just the one copy, though." He was smarter then that.

Mark gulped. "You're… you're one of them, aren't you? You're one of the ones that he warned me about. The ones in the journal."

"So you do have it." She said. "Now here's the deal. You give it to me and you get to live. You try anything stupid and I kill you. I'd rather not do that, as you seem to be a pretty nice guy in and of yourself. Understand?"

"Yes." He replied.

"Good." She smiled. 'Now, do you have it on you?"

"Yes I do."

"Give it to me." She held out her hand. "And don't do anything stupid. I could just as easily shoot you and loot your dead body."

He nodded then slowly reached into his jacket, and pulled out a small data disk. Amelia smiled as he placed it in her hand.

"Thank you."

"Now can I go?"

"No." Amelia replied. "I lied. Sorry." She smiled, then fired the pistol. Mark staggered back, then simply collapsed. Stepping over his body, she headed down the hallway. Hiding behind a recess in the wall, she pressed a button on the side of her watch. "It's me. I have the item. Get me out of here now."

-----

Some distance form the factory, parked in amongst a group of rather weathered-looking transports, was a somewhat decrepit-looking unmarked Hovercargo. Its crew had been quietly watching the events unfolding outside the Palitoy factory for some time, waiting for their signal for action. Now it was time to go.

The top bay of the Hovercargo opened with a launch ramp extending out from it. A single Zoid was raised into position, a dark metallic grey Blade Liger whose colour scheme blended into the greys of the city around it. Within seconds of being locked into place, the liger was launched. A pair of white and grey Arosaurers followed it.

"All Zoids down successfully." The Liger pilot reported. "Moving towards objective."

Their target was a side entrance to the Palitoy factory, designed for Zoids to move through. It was currently guarded by a pair of booster-equipped Hammer Rocks, who were making sure that no Zoids got out.

Which meant they weren't expecting someone to come in.

The Blade Liger charged past the pair of them, blades outstretched. The two smaller Zoids simply collapsed, their forelegs sliced out from underneath them.

"You two stay here and guard the entrance." The Liger pilot said. "I'm going in."

Shield up, the Blade Liger simply smashed through the door and headed inside. After less then a minute of twisting through the narrow corridors, it stopped at the entrance to a service tunnel.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Captain O'Bannon" the pilot began as he opened the cockpit.

"Took your sweet time." Rose replied as she climbed up to the back seat of the Liger's cockpit. "Now let's get out of here."

"What about captain Magyari?" The pilot asked.

"She's a big girl. She can look after herself. Although the look on her face when she finds out what happened will be priceless." She squeezed herself into the secondary cockpit. "Who did they make this seat for, midgets?"

"Captain?"

"Never mind. Just go."

-----

Sel's Darkhorn smashed into the Guysack, simply smashing the smaller Zoid aside. The smaller Zoid collapsed in a tangled pile of limbs, apparently not moving. "How are you going?" She shouted over the comm link.

"Not too bad." Sandra replied, her Shield Liger pulling up next to the Darkhorn. "There was a Gravity Saurer that wouldn't take no for an answer, but I gave him a good smacking around."

Sel surveyed the entrances to the Service tunnels. "Anastasia got me a good layout of this place. He probably left one of the control rooms heading for either a hanger or an emergency exit. So he's probably down one of these." She opened the cockpit of the Darkhorn. "Okay, I'm going in to get him."

"I'll come with you" Sandra offered.

"No. I need you to stay here in case any other Zoids come after us." She replied. "Someone has to hold them off, and with your shield you'd be better for that." Besides, you don't want to know what I may have to do, she mentally added.

"Right. Just look after yourself." Sandra replied.

Sel leaped down form the Darkhorn's cockpit. Looking around, she arbitrarily decided on the centremost of the three tunnels present. Gun drawn, she sprinted into the darkened tunnel. Stopping at an intersection, she chose to head towards the outside of the plant

If he was trying to get away, the odds are he'd be closer to the outside, she thought. I only hope he hasn't yet.

A loud crashing sound from further down a tunnel caught her attention. It sounded like a Zoid… could there be someone else down here? Maybe he was trying to get away. Turning towards the direction the sound was coming form, she broke into a run.

A minute later, she arrived at another intersection. Unlike the others, there was someone there. A man, lying on the floor, clutching his chest, a pool of blood forming behind him. She ran over to him, then knelt down. In the dim light, she could see who it was. Mark Zell. He had been shot in the chest, probably at pointblank range.

No. She thought. I'm too la- her thoughts were cut off by a wheezing sound. He was still alive.

"What-" She began "What happened."

"You…" He looked up at her. "You must tell the world about them. Everyone… everyone should know."

"Who?" She asked.

"Them. The dark continent." He gasped. "I… I know about them."

"How?" She asked, frantic for an answer.

"In my Zoid. There…" he couched. "There is a disk. It contains what everyone should know." He looked up at her. "They've been lied too. Everyone needs to…" he trailed off.

"Mark?" She asked. "Mark?!" He was silent. Dead.

She stood up. His Zoid. But where was that? She looked around A light was coming from one of the corridors. Could that be what he meant? Cautiously, gun drawn, she advanced down the hall.

At the end, there was a large open bay. It may have been some sort of storage tank or the like before, but now it made a great hanger for a flying Zoid. A red and silver Pteras stood in the bay, a pair of CP-09 booster cannons mounted on its wings pointing up to the bay's roof. "His Zoid." She muttered. Kandrak's men had used Rados, a red version of the Pteras. Could this have been one of them?

She walked over to the cockpit, which was opened. She dropped into the seat, then began to fossick around the cockpit. Under the main instrumentation panel, she found it. A data disk that had been carefully secreted away where you wouldn't find it unless you knew that there was something to find. She pulled the disk out and looked at it. "Mission accomplished."

-----

The fighting in the main Zoid bay seemed to be largely over. Rusoff had deployed most of his pilots to stop them, and almost all of them had been accounted for. There were still a few to go, but Rick doubted they'd be giving anyone any grief.

"So." He began. "You come here often?"

Bekka laughed. "I try to avoid these kinds of places. The crowds are awful." They both laughed. It had been a long fight, but everyone appeared to have come out okay. "I just wonder where the boss got to."

"Well, if she and Sandra wandered off to the same place, I feel sorry for whoever was there at the time." They both laughed.

"Smoooooooooch." Vic muttered, her Gunsniper standing next to the pair of them, apparently grinning.

"I'm sorry to interrupt" Zofia (as they learned her name really was) said as her Iron Kong wandered over next to them. "But matters here appear to be under wraps. I'll obviously need to ask you all a few questions regarding your involvement in all this."

"Oh dear." Rick said

"That… that could be difficult." Bekka added

"Allow me." Matt offered as his Deadborder interjected between her and the pair of them. "We were here on behalf of UZN military intelligence, investigating illegal Zoid smuggling. When our commander returns, she will explain it all."

"I'm sorry." Zofia replied. "I'll still need to question you. And confirm your status with the UZN."

"That won't be necessary." Sel said as her Darkhorn entered the arena, Sandra's Shield Liger behind it. "Matt, tail. Alex, begin defenestration!"

"You got it, chief." Alex began. "Preparing to Defenestrate."

"What?" Zofia shouted.

Matt's Deadborder swung around, slapping one of the Iron Kong's forelegs out from under it. At the same time, Alex's Heldigunner lowered its cannon and opened fire on the arena wall.

"Stop them, Boris!" Zofia shouted. Boris's Iron Kong charged across the arena, only to be rammed form the side by Sel's Darkhorn, which was now belching black smoke from the various ports on its side. The Kong crashed to the ground, one of its legs badly damaged.

"I started a goodly hole for you, boss." Alex began.

"Good. Matt, help us with the window. The rest of you, vanish." The Darkhorn and Deadborder both opened fire on the wall, capitalising on the damage done by Alex's shot. Rick had lost track of the three Heldigunners in the confusion, but he got a pretty good idea of what was going on from the loud splashes.

"See you, lover boy." Bekka added as a final farewell before her radio signal went dead.

-----

Rusoff looked down at the arena from the shattered remains of his office. Last he'd seen the Kongs and some other Zoids were busy destroying the best he had to offer. Then they'd decided to turn on each other for some reason. Now the whole place was blacked out with smoke. He'd checked the office, but found no sign of Amelia or Mark.

He picked up the communicator that he had dropped. "Hey!" He shouted. "This is Russoff! Can someone give me an update?" Silence. "Hello? Anyone out there? What is going on? Can somebody please fill me in?" Still nothing. "Listen people, I pay you to keep me informed. So somebody start earning their damned pay check!"

A loud crashing sound behind him caught his attention. "What the hell is going on in here?" He asked as he turned around, only to find himself face-to-face with one of the Iron Kongs. It didn't look happy.

"Mister Rusoff." The female pilot began. "You are under arrest. I suggest that you do not attempt to escape or resit arrest, although it may make me feel better if you do."

-----

Sandra looked up at the Iron Kong perched on the arena side, glaring into one of the offices. She didn't want to be the person in that office but, at the same time, she wished she could see the look on the face of whoever was in there.

The second Iron Kong stood there, watching the three of them, its armour (and the pilot's pride) somewhat dented but otherwise unharmed. Of the dark Zoids, there was no sign save for a large hole in the wall.

"What was Sel after?" Rick asked.

"Hm?" Sandra replied. "Oh, her. Plugging a security leak, that's all."

"She took a leak." Vic added and sniggered in her usual way.

"So why is it that we seem to bump into them wherever we go?" Rick asked. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you. These long pauses are very straining on Bekka and my relationship."

"Rick, you'd look on the bright side of a train wreck." Sandra replied.

"He used to be in comics. Everything is a train wreck." Vic added.

Sandra sighed. She had to concede the point to Vic on that one. "I don't know, Rick. Maybe we're just lucky in a very strange way. Maybe we're just unlucky. Who knows."

"I hope Sel got away okay." Rick said.

"I wouldn't worry about her." Sandra said. "Instead, fell sorry for anyone who got in her way."

"They'd be killed like splat!" Vic added enthusiastically. "Or pow. Or bonk maybe."

-----

Whale King Null

Over the Wastelands

0900 Hours

Sel sat back in her seat in her office, staring at the disk she held in her hands. The Quentin Journal. The source of a lot of grief for a lot of people. And what should be the last extant copy in the Shelflands was in her hands.

She'd been ordered to return it for analysis, rather then destroy it. She could understand why. It' would allow intel to find out what Kandrak and the others had known about them, as well as allow them to know more about what A-X had attempted. It may even have information about access to their own city that they were unaware of.

Interestingly enough, she'd been ordered not to view it herself. Major De Lyon had noted that it may contain information that was still classified about sensitive areas of the city, such as the massive power core that was its heart. She'd accepted it at the time, but something Sandra had said bothered her.

"I mean you've been famously elusive on so many damned details." She had said. "You're great at leaving people out in the cold, you know that? Damn it, do you frelling well treat your own men like this? How much haven't you told them?"

Sandra had been talking to Sel then. But it had stuck in her head. Maybe Sandra wasn't the only one who was being left in the dark. There was so much more that she'd wanted to tell Sandra and the others about herself and the rest of her people, but couldn't because she wasn't permitted to.

Why?

It had raised another thought in her head. Was there more that she wasn't being told? Why did they have to be so secretive about their existence? If they had their manifest destiny, why not allow the rest of the Shelflands to embrace it? And surely if this world was but a temporary one that was their home until the day that they could return to their true home, the paradise from which they had been driven, then wouldn't they want help in attaining that goal?

There was a knock on the door. "Enter." She began.

Matt stepped in. "Sorry to bother you, captain."

"Not a problem, lieutenant." She replied. "How's everything going?"

"Corporal Cade is a little upset about having to leave Rick again, but other then that we're all fine." He replied. "The techs are giving the Zoids a once-over, but aside from the Heldigunners needing a good wash, they're all fine."

"That's good." She leaned back in her chair.

"Is there something troubling you, captain?"

"Why do you say that?"

"You're still staring at that disc." He replied.

She put it down. "When I found Zell, he was already dying. Someone had shot him. Unfortunately, I have no idea who."

"Maybe it was one of the other employees of the fight club who wanted to keep him quiet." Matt replied.

"He was dying when I found him." She continued. "He said something about 'them'. They had been lied to, and apparently this disk has what they should know." She said. "I have no idea what he meant."

"I can't say. If he was dying of a gunshot wound, it's possible that he was delusional." Matt replied. "He may not have known what he was saying."

"I don't know. He explicitly mentioned the Dark Continent."

"Maybe he heard about what had happened there from Kandrak himself." I can't say."

"Thanks." Sel replied. "I've got to get on with my report. Command will certainly want to know what I was doing for the last month." She smiled. "I'll leave everything in your hands for the moment."

"Yes captain." He said, and left.

Sel sat back in her chair and looked at the disk again. "What was he saying?" She asked herself. "And was Sandra right?"


	37. Ruins

Redrock Ridge

The Wastelands

1430 hours

As her Liger sliced through the Godos, Rose was hoping that the pilot of its partner was watching what happened. The smaller tyrannosaur Zoid, neatly sliced in half, simply keeled over as her Liger continued its charge.

There, she thought. There he was. Lurking in the entrance of a side canyon was a small, grey bipedal Zoid, probably the Godos that had evaded her earlier while she was cutting down its companion. "You can't run forever", she sneered as the Liger turned to chase it. The Godos pilot turned and ran, the smaller Zoid darting down the canyon.

"Stupid." She muttered. "You're only going to make it worse." Her Liger was nearly twice as fast as it was. He couldn't out run her and there was no way he could out-fight her. She dropped the target sights onto the smaller Zoid, but hesitated form firing. No, why not have some fun, she thought. Sparing the trigger for the moment, she closed the distance between the two of them.

"Captain O'Bannon, come in please!" A voice from the communicator grabbed her attention. Flicking it on, a young woman with brown hair and wide brown eyes appeared on the screen.

"What is it, Rush?" She snapped. "I'm very busy right now!"

"Captain Taratov requests that you return to ship immediately, captain." She nervously replied.

"Why?" Rose snapped. "I can handle things out here."

"We-we've been recalled, captain." She stammered. "On the orders of major De Lyon."

"What?" She shouted. "Why?"

"He said it was because Captain Magyari has returned with the-"

"Damn it!" Rose shouted. Her Liger leaped into the air, then crashed down on the Godos. The smaller Zoid collapsed under the force of the blow, crumpling into a heap. Raising one of the Liger's paws, she smashed it down on the Godos' cockpit, silencing it.

"Captain?"

"Fine." She replied. "All units, return to ship!"

-

To say that Rose was unhappy would be an understatement. She'd spent the last month working on an undercover operation to retrieve the last known extant copy of the Quentin journal, only to be upstaged at the last minute by Sel Magyari. The other captain had managed to get away with the journal and was probably being commended for the amount of damage she did. All Rose had to show for it was a video disc of randomly clipped arena fights.

She stormed into her office and sat down in her commander's chair. Glaring at the monitor, she jabbed a button on the keyboard. "Rush?"

"Yes captain?" The female technician replied.

"I want to speak to major De Lyon immediately"

"I'll have to put it through to command and-"

"God damn it, just do it!" Rose shouted. She wanted an explanation and she was not ready to settle for anything less then one from De Lyon himself.

"Y-yes captain." Rush stammered, then closed the connection.

Rose sat back in her chair arms folded and scowling. De Lyon had better have a good explanation for this, she thought. She tried to think of some advantage she had over him that she could use to get her way. Certainly she'd come out looking a lot better then him after the A-X incursion, but then Sel had come off looking better then the pair of them. Great.

The communicator bleeped. She turned back to the monitor, which was now displaying a five-pointed black star and a 'priority transmission' notice. So this was it. She pressed a button on the monitor. De Lyon's stern, angular face appeared. He was wearing his full uniform, complete with officer's cap, something Rose rarely did herself.

"Ah, captain O'Bannon." He began. "You wanted to speak to me."

"What is going on here, Major?" She snapped. "Why have I been recalled?"

"You may recall, captain that the mission I dispatched your unit on has since been completed." He explained. "Captain Magyari retrieved the journal and has since returned home. I see no reason to keep your unit in the field any longer."

Damn. He was being reasonable. That was the last thing she wanted. "But sir, I-"

"Actually, there is one other matter." He interrupted. "As of this moment, I'm reliving you of command of the special operations squadron."

"What?" She explained. "Why?" The special operations squadron was made up of various Zoids that had been captured in the field and were to be used for more deniable or covert operations, as well as aggressor training units. Currently, units captured from Pie's forces currently made up the bulk of it.

"It has been reassigned to other duties, captain." He replied. "On the orders of Colonel Cade." He added, cutting her off before she could reply.

"I see." She'd been beaten again.

"I expect to see you and your ship back here as soon as possible, captain." He continued. "Out."

The screen went blank. Rose sat back in her chair, arms folded and feeling very, very angry. De Lyon had managed to pull the rug out from under her. He'd done to her what she'd been trying to do to him all along. Fine. She'd just have to find some other way to get to him.

She could only hope Sel was having as miserable a time of it as she was.

-

De Lyon wanted to laugh out loud. The look on O'Bannon's face had been perfect. He'd just done to her what she'd been trying to do to him for the last few months. In one stroke he'd completely undercut her authority and effectively eliminated any threat she posed to him.

The Special Operations unit would be very useful to him. While the squad were officially designated as aggressors for combat training, their real use was far more important to him. They existed to do things outside of the normal structure of the military chain of command. The men and women that made it up were trained to follow orders, no matter how strange or unusual they may seem to be. Which was perfect for what he needed.

He was glad that Sel had found the Quentin Journal and not Rose. He knew that he could rely on Sel to just hand it over with no questions asked. More importantly, he knew he could rely on her to follow his orders not to read it. Had Rose found it, she probably would have committed its contents to memory by now in the hope that there was something that she could use to her advantage, not to mention making numerous backups for emergencies or possible future use.

Fortunately, he had gotten to it first.

He'd obligingly handed the disk over to Cade, Abbot and the others, earning himself and Magyari a lot of pats on the back and "jolly good shows" in the process. Of course, he'd read it through and made a copy of it first. The information in it had been... enlightening. That was the only way he could put it.

His assignment of Magyari and O'Bannon to this operation hadn't been his idea. They'd both been chosen by Colonel Cade, due to the vast amounts of experience both of them had with dealing with outsiders. He had personally wanted to command the operation himself, but Cade had overruled him, much as she'd done with the first operation to retrieve the Journal.

Well, that should change, he thought. Once I take advantage of what I've found, I'll be the one in charge.

-

Sel tried to ignore the knocking on the door as she unpacked the backpack for the third time. Eventually she gave up and just dumped the clothes on the floor. "Who is it?" She shouted.

"It's me, Matt." Came the voice form the other side.

Felling guilty, she muttered out a "Come in."

Matt stepped into the room and managed to look decently surprised. Sel's normally immaculate quarters were a mess of clothes and equipment strewn over every available flat surface. A large backpack was sitting in the middle of the floor, a pair of pants hanging out of it. Sel herself was looking somewhat flustered, and was slowly shuffling as if to hide something.

"Is everything okay, captain?"

"Fine." She replied. "Great. No problems. Why do you ask?"

"Well, you've been making a lot of noise in here. Swearing even."

"I've been busy" She replied. "Preparing. Packing. Cleaning things up."

"I see." He replied. "Is that one of the survival backpacks from the ship's emergency supplies?"

Sel looked down at the pack on the floor. "Yes, yes it is. I was checking it to make sure that it was fine."

"Surely that's the crew's job." Matt replied.

"I took it upon myself to conduct a random inspection." She countered. "It's a new ship. It was taken as combat salvage. I wanted to personally inspect their gear."

"I see." Matt said. "Can I ask you something?"

"Certainly." She hadn't moved. Peering around, Matt was sure he could see something behind her. She shuffled as if to hide it.

"You aren't planning some sort of wilderness expedition, are you?"

"Why do you say that?" She asked.

"Well, you took the pack and survival gear from the ship." He began. "And then went back for some climbing equipment from the emergency supplies as well as emergency trail rations."

Sel put the climbing gear that she was hiding behind her down on the bed. "Well, yes." She admitted.

"Can I ask what it's about?" He said. "It's just that, well, since we left Tempus you've been rather quiet."

Sel sighed. "Matt, I don't want to get you in to trouble. I've committed another major breach of security. However, this is one that was my decision and can be placed squarely on my shoulders and nobody else's."

"What did you do?" He asked. "I'm asking you as a friend. I want to know if I can help you."

Sel looked up at the ceiling. "I read the journal after recovering it, despite being ordered not to. I couldn't help my self. Everything Sandra had said to me about my keeping her in the dark seemed to suddenly make sense. I just felt like there was so much that I wasn't being told, and the Journal might have some of the answers."

"And did it?"

She nodded. "Sort of. I... I need to see it for myself, Matt." She replied. "That's what I'm doing. There's a place mentioned in the journal that's been sealed off and hidden away from the rest of the city. I'm going to see that place, Matt. I have to."

"So you can know the truth?"

She nodded again. "I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't." She looked him in the eyes. "When I found Zell, he was already dying. Somebody had shot him. The last thing he told me was that 'they' had been lied to and 'they' needed to know the truth. And he explicitly mentioned the Dark Continent. I have a feeling he was talking about, well, us."

He nodded. "I understand, Sel."

"Good." She replied. "This will probably be the end of my career. I've made sure that nothing I do today will reflect back on any of you in the squad, or any other members of my company. This is something I must do myself."

"I can't allow you to do that, captain." He replied, sternly.

Sel glared at him. "You said you understood why I had to go. Now you're saying you'll stop me?" she said, angrily.

"No, I meant I cannot allow you to go alone." He replied. "Wherever this place is, it can't be easy to reach. You're packing survival and climbing gear which means that it is likely inaccessible or at the very least a long journey. In either case, it would be dangerous to travel alone."

"You want to come with me?" She asked.

"Yes." He replied. "For your safety."

"Matt, you could be throwing away your career here." She stated. "What you're doing could be constituted as treason."

"And I don't think I could live with myself letting you go off on your own like that. Or, for that matter, without knowing what lay down there."

He mentioned my safety first, she thought, and the objective second. "Very well then." She replied. "I'm leaving tomorrow morning before the Foundation Day celebrations begin." Foundation Day was the annual celebration of the city's foundation. Sel didn't feel much like celebrating, however. "I suggest you pack."

"Yes captain." He replied.

"Two more things, Matt." She added. "The first is that if we are caught, you will say that I ordered you to come with me and that you had no idea of what I was doing. That way If I go down in flames - which I probably will - you can at least salvage something of it."

He nodded. "I will. So what's the other thing?"

She smiled, albeit weakly. "Thanks for volunteering to come."

-

De Lyon drummed his fingers impatiently on his desk. Some hours ago, he'd sent several teams down into the depths of the city. They had been tasked with locating several items and places mentioned in the Journal. He needed to know if what Quentin had seen there was correct. If he was, the implications could be… interesting, he thought.

In a strange way, he had to admire Quentin. It was clear from his journal that he was a very intelligent and observant man. He'd made a number of deductions about the city and its people from just his first observations, most of which had turned out to be correct. He also must have spent many hours crawling around the darkest depths of the city at his commander's orders to have found some of the things that he did. Things that the city's own inhabitants either didn't know about. Or, he reflected grimly, weren't supposed to know about.

In many ways, it was a pity that he'd died during the fighting, he thought. Quentin would have been a veritable goldmine of information about the outside world, especially the Draken Empire. The Journal itself wasn't entirely his own work, he'd noticed. There was a good amount of additional material added to it, most notably by Kandrak who had continued to record what had happened during the fighting. It also contained what appeared to be records of the city's original inhabitants, which made for a very interesting read.

A beeping noise from his communicator grabbed his attention. Swinging around, he pressed the receive button on the consol. A flashing red icon indicated a secure connection. After a second the picture came up, a blurry, static-filled image of a soldier in body armour.

"Well?" he began.

"This is team three here." The soldier replied. "Communication is difficult. We're at the base of the core, and it's-"

"Just tell me if you found it." He replied.

"Yes sir." The soldier replied. "It's here, just as you said it would be."

"Let me see it"

The camera jostled around to show a section of the core near where it met the bedrock. A few bulging features on the side caught his attention. Tapping a few buttons, he bought up an image from the journal next to it and compared the two. There. Quentin was right again, he thought. Perfect. If Cade, Burton and Bishop thought they could cal the shots, this proved them wrong.

"Sir?" He soldier asked.

"Good work. Return to base immediately and await my orders." He finished.

"Yes sir." The link closed.

He sat back in his chair. A stream of thoughts that he'd been pulling together for the last few days was beginning to take form. So the core is really… he thought. That was the first and most important thing he needed.

Another beep interrupted him. He pressed the button, the screen resolving to the face of one of his subordinates, Captain Karen Anderson. A pale skinned, dark haired woman, she reminded him of that Blackmore woman who had rampaged through here a while back. "Yes?" He asked.

"Captain O'Bannon's ship has just returned." She began. "Should I meet her and have her sent up to you?"

"No." He replied. "I'll do it myself."

"Yes sir."

He closed the link and smiled. This should be fun, he thought.

-

The instant Rose stepped off the ship, she knew she was in for trouble. De Lyon was standing by the hatch, an altogether too smug look on his face.

"Captain." He began and saluted.

"Yes, major." She replied and returned the salute.

"I trust it everything went well." He began.

You bastard, she thought. "Well, I can't take all the credit for what happened." She relied. "Captain Magyari was the one who retrieved the journal. She deserves the congratulations for what happened." There, she thought. As long as I steal your thunder.

"And how did the Special Operations unit perform?" he asked. "They are using new equipment after all."

"They performed as well as can be expected." Rose knew that the unit was going to be taken from her. At least she'd get to walk away with her Blade Liger. That one Zoid was assigned to her personally, rather the unit.

"Good to hear." He smiled. "So do you have any plans for Foundation day tomorrow?" He asked.

"No." She replied. "I was thinking of taking it easy. After all, I've just returned from the field."

"Of course."

"How about you, sir?" She asked. "Any plans? Or were you thinking of just doing a little reading."

"Reading?"

"Maybe some historical works." She said, then walked off, smiling. Just as I thought, she mentally added. He's read it. She looked back at De Lyon, who was quietly fuming. Maybe its time for me to take a little walk.

-

Since she had started this expedition, one thing about the city in which she lived had surprised Sel. There was a lot more of it then she'd ever thought.

She'd lived most of her life in the massive cavern that was the new city. Far larger then the one that held the old city, it was, in essence, a self-contained world. Everything in the city was layered; buildings stretched hundreds of meters form floor to ceiling. All the roads were multi-layered, interlaced with walkways between buildings. One never needed to go to the ground level if one didn't want to.

Not that you would want to. The ground levels were dark, dismal, forgotten places, often completely blocked off from the light given off by the massive lamps that provided a simulation of the daytime sky. Many buildings at their ground levels were completely abandoned, the streets often a choked mess of debris, garbage and burnt-out vehicles. This was the home of the poor and desperate, those who had either rejected society to live their own way (usually regretting it) or just fallen through the cracks.

Sel's only guide was a copy of the Journal that she'd downloaded to her own minicomputer. Even then, she'd purged a lot of the text to make space for the maps and diagrams. She and Matt had been forced to detour through the maze of choked streets and dead ends that made up the bottom level of their world. From there, they'd be able to find the entrance that they were looking for.

The entrance to the next level down.

It had come to a shock to Sel to discover that there was another layer below the new city that was actually older then the cavern that held what she saw as her world. Quentin had managed to find it, however. He'd recorded every detail of what he'd found there to within the limits of his understanding. Now Sel had to see it for herself.

Descending through a forgotten access hatch had led the pair of them into a maze of tunnels that ran underneath the city. Dark, cramped and claustrophobic, they were often barely accessible, the path being squeezed between conduits and pipes.

Slowly the pair of them had weaved their way down through the maze of tunnels. Sel quietly wondered to herself how far down they had gone. Were they as deep again as the new city? Further down even?

She stopped. There was a square-shaped, straight-sided hole in the floor ahead of her. She double checked the guide. Yep, this was the place.

"Captain?" Matt asked. "Where to now?"

"Down here." She replied. "This shaft will lead us further down. From there, we keep walking." She turned back to face him. "As far as Quentin was aware, this is the only way down."

Matt looked over the side. The hole quickly plunged into darkness. He could see that is sides were not regular, bur rather had a few landings in the sides. "What do you think it is?" He asked.

"My guess is that it was an elevator shaft." She replied, then looked up. There was no sign of a matching hole on the top. "But I could be mistaken. There's so much we don't know about this place."

The pair of them descended into the darkness. The climb wasn't that difficult; the landings had been placed at regular intervals, which furthered Sel's theory that it may have been an elevator shaft of some kind. After a while - exactly how long escaped her - the pair of them reached the bottom. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't completely dark.

A dim light issued from around a bend in the corridor ahead. Cautiously the pair of them followed it. As they got closer, they could make out more details of the passageway around them. It was different to the others they'd seen so far. Whereas the corridors below the city had been dull concrete lined with pipes, these were made up of complex, interlocking pieces and had otherwise bare or featureless walls. No pipes, conduits or the like to obstruct their passage. The lighting came from a single strip imbedded into the roof.

"This is… different." Matt commented.

"We know there were people here before us." Sel replied. "I wonder if they built all this."

"It looks very different from the construction in the cities, however." Matt replied. "I think it may be a later addition after they built the city."

Or an earlier one, Sel thought. She didn't want to admit it, but something about that worried her.

The corridor continued into another maze of passages. Sel didn't want to admit it, but there was something odd about this place that was strangely disquieting. Something… alien. As if it wasn't made by human hands.

The pair of them stopped by a doorway. Sel checked her notes, then looked back at Matt. "This is it." She said, quietly. "You don't have to go on from here. You could turn back now, and avoid the worst of the blame. You could say you tried to stop me but I lost you in the maze."

"Thank you, captain, but I think I have to see this for myself."

And the decision is made, she thought. No turning back now.

They stepped through the doorway.

Sel looked around. They were in a massive domed room of impossibly large size. She quietly figured that it had to be about four hundred meters across and at least a hundred high. Possibly more. The pair of them were standing on a ledge about ten meters off the floor. Below them was… well, Sel couldn't begin to describe what she saw. Rows of massive metal crates. Strange unidentifiable machines. Pieces of… well, she couldn't imagine.

"I don't wish to sound anticlimactic." Matt began. "But what are we looking at?"

"I have no idea." Sel replied. "Whatever it is, it's hidden down here for a reason. I want to know why." She looked along the ledge. A little over from where they were was a ladder, leading down to the floor. Not wasting any time. Sel ran over to it and quickly climbed down to the floor level, running to the nearest crate. With nothing else to do, Matt followed her.

"What is it?" he asked, looking at the giant crate. An embossed plate on the front read as "Gojulas: Tyrannosaurus Type"

"A Gojulas?" Sel asked. "Interesting. As far as I know, we've never had any Gojulas here" She gave the crate a quick once over. Its front side had a handle on it that she supposed was part of a door release mechanism. She tried turning it, but it only moved a little. "Give me a hand here, Matt."

Matt took the other side of the handle. The pair of them strained against it for a few minutes, before it finally switched over with a resounding clang. With a low, loud creak suggesting that it hadn't moved in decades, the door of the crate opened a little.

"What's inside?" Matt asked.

"I can't see." Sel replied. "But I intend to find out." She pushed on the dor, forcing it open despite its protests. She released the door, then walked round to the front of the crate and peered into the darkness inside. Inside was a Gojulas or, at least, the wreckage of one. The right side of its head and much of its body had been sheered way, as if it had been torn from the body. Or, she thought, if it had been blasted away. Parts of what remained looked to have been removed or at least partially disassembled.

"A dead Gojulas?" Matt asked. "What is it doing here?"

"I have no idea." She replied. She looked over at the crate next to it. "Gordos: Stegosaurus Type." She said out loud.

"There's a Redhorn over here." Matt added, looking at a different crate.

"Do you think these all contain destroyed Zoids?" She asked. "What is this, a morgue?"

Mat looked at her. "Sel, when you test piloted the Deathsaurer, did they tell you more about it?" He asked. "Like where it came from?"

"Only that they found it." She replied. "Damaged but still operational in the ruins of the city." She looked around at the other crates. "I wonder if these were found at the same time?"

Matt walked around the crates. "Mammoth. Sabre Tiger. Molga. Geruder." He paused in front of one crate. "Unknown Iguan or Godos"

"Unknown?" She asked. "What, there wasn't enough left to tell?"

Matt looked at her. "If it had been attacked by a Deathsaurer, maybe." He walked back over to her. "Is this what you came to see?"

"No." She replied. "There is more. Things that Quentin may not have immediately recognised but that I may be able to put into context."

She walked past the rows of crates. She noted that a number could have been from Chrom's unit. "Spartak, Stang, Kreep." She muttered. "Red Scavenger, Gordox, Terrox." She added. What was this place?

"Over here." Matt called out. Sel sprinted over to where he was standing.

A large, red humanoid battlesuit with a black torso was lying on the floor, Matt standing by its side. Its head reminded her of the older model Zoids like the Garius, and was similarly sized. Looking in through the canopy cover, she could see a vacant pilots seat in a cockpit that looked much like a Zoid's cockpit. I probably wouldn't feel out of place inside it, she thought. Looking up, she could see a large golden wedge or spike was jutting forward from its chest, presumably some sort of weapon or maybe a tool. Its left arm ended in a twin-barrelled cannon, while the right had a large grasping claw.

"What is it?" He asked. "Some sort of humanoid Zoid?"

"I don't know." She replied. "It's got a number of Zoid-like features, but there are many differences too." She looked along its length. "Certainly, I've never seen or heard of anything like it."

"Maybe it was found here like the Deathsaurer." Matt offered.

"An extinct Zoid type?" She asked. "It's possible. Or maybe it's something else. A related or similar creature." She shrugged. "Or an artificial Zoid maybe."

"I wonder if it still runs." Matt asked. "Or if it's really dead?"

Sel rubbed the back of her neck. "I get the feeling it's not the sort of thing I want to find out. I think this one should be left be." Despite its odd design, something about the suit was unsettling to her. It seemed dangerous.

"Captain?" Matt asked. Sel blinked. She'd been staring at the suit. "Do you want to keep going?"

"Definitely." She said. "I want to know what's down here." And why we're not meant to know, she added.

She looked over at a pair of odd looking tracked vehicles. Both had some sort of strange combination drill/cannon weapon mounted on their backs and looked somewhat more worn or used then a lot of the other things in here. No, nothing odd there. So far only the alien battlesuit seemed really out of place, and even then it didn't seem like the sort of thing you'd hide. A trio of crates off to one side caught her attention. They were metal slabs, similar to the ones that had contained the dead Zoids, but far smaller.

Hey were big enough for a person to fit in. Almost like a coffin, really. That didn't sit well with her at all. She walked over to one of them. It was locked down, like a foot locker. She wanted to open it, but couldn't think of any way to do it without breaking the lock. For some reason, she wanted to leave as little trace of her being here as possible. That way I may be able to get away free, she thought. I can descend to the depths. Come back up and be none the worse for wear.

"Any idea what these are?" Matt asked. He was looking at a pair of large, exotic looking devices. They resembled nothing as much as furnaces or boilers, but weren't obviously connected to anything. Numerous pipes ran along their sides, and each one had a large, clear bowl at the end running out from the main body of the furnace. Whatever came out of it and into the bowl had passed through several fine filters, Sel noted.

"They're nanotech forges." A voice behind her said. Sel and mat both spun around to see Rose sitting on top of one of the 'coffins'. She was wearing a sleeveless top, had her hair tied back and was covered in grime.

"Nanotech forges?" Matt asked. "As in… they make nanites?"

Rose stood up. "Good guess." She replied. "These two are in reserve. I know there's at least two more currently in use."

"In use?" Sel asked. "But… Nanotech is dangerous. We don't use it because of the risks involved." It was something she'd been taught. Nanotech had made man powerful, but had nearly caused his downfall centuries ago. Now it was a banned technology, not to be used, no matter what the benefits would be.

"Yeah, funny that." Rose replied. "And yet, you're reaping its benefits."

"What do you mean?" Matt asked.

"Oh come on." Rose rolled her eyes. "How do you think that oh-so-swanky genetic upgrade you, me, her and every other damned Zoid pilot in this city went through works?" She asked rhetorically.

Sel nodded. She, like every other potential Zoid pilot, went through a long genetic upgrade process during their early teens. The result was that they were stronger, faster and fitter then normal humans, with better reflexes, better hand/eye coordination, stranger circulatory and respiratory systems… and also tended to all come out tall and attractive. The technology had been developed so the city's small pool of pilots would be more effective in battle, given that most opponents would be able to field larger or more diverse forces.

"The same goes for our amazing medical technology that can patch people up without even scars." Rose replied.

"But the nutrient gels we use-" Sel began.

"Is just glop with nanites inside." Rose replied.

"But why?"

Rose shrugged. "Think of it this way. You've got this amazing technology that can do all sorts of amazing stuff. You're also a member of a small elite who wield absolute power. You don't want Joe everyman getting his hands on the technology that grants you that power, do you?"

"Well, I guess…"

"That's right, sis." Rose said. Sel winced. Rose never referred to her like that unless she was up to something. "And those in charge make sure the people that could inherit their position of power, people like you and me, are happy with their lot. How?"

"By giving them power." Matt replied. "By elevating them above all the others. By making sure they will get the most benefit out of the system that created them and that they will eventually lead."

"Smart boy." Rose replied. "Sel, he makes a great XO. I'll have to steal him from you."

Sel was trying not to think about it. Everything that Quentin had said was true. Did that mean… She had to change the subject. "How did you find this place, Rose?" She asked. "Did you read the journal too?"

"I wish." She replied. "I'd love to know what other dark secrets they found." She glanced at Sel's wristcomm. "Say, could I borrow that when you're done?"

"I've deleted most of the text." She replied. "Only the maps remain."

"Pity." Rose walked around. "I discovered this place years ago by accident."

"Accident?" Sel asked. "How?"

She smirked. "Did you ever wonder where I went during parent days?" She began.

"No." Sel admitted. Like all children, Rose and Sel were raised in communal crèches with others of their age. The pair of them had been a part of a large group of foster siblings, but had always been considered two of the best and brightest. They would see their parents, of course, but only for a day at a time, usually every second week. Sel could never remember seeing Rose's parents though.

"Not surprising." She replied. "I used to run away during those days. Call it not facing reality." Rose shrugged. "As I grew, I became more and more adventurous. One day while avoiding a bucket load of cloying touchy-feelyness, I found this place." She pointed to another door on the other side of the dome to where Sel and Matt had entered. "The route to that one is mostly blocked with old debris and chunks of fallen roof. It was a lot easier to get into when I was smaller."

"So you knew all along?" Sel said. "Why didn't you…"

"Mention it?" Rose replied. "Oh come on. Do you honestly think I care about anyone else?" She glared at Sel. "I've spent my whole life looking out for one person. Me."

Sel sighed. She should have seen this coming. "Okay Rose, tell me one thing. Our great manifest destiny. What's the real story?" She was ready for the worst. This was the belief that her entire society was based around, the one thing that had been driving her for all her life.

Sel had been taught that her forefathers had crash landed on this planet a century ago. They had been driven from their home, a paradise-like word and forced to flee into space. One day, however, they would rebuild their ship and return to their true home. In the meantime, they were to protect their current hoe on this world until that great day arrived. That was what she fought for.

"Oh that?" She smiled. "This you've got to see for yourself."

They weaved their way further into the complex. Rose lead while Sel and Matt quietly followed her, looking around. There were things here that Sel didn't recognise or couldn't place. Something inside her told her that she didn't want to know.

"We're here." Rose said.

Sel and Matt looked at what was before them. It was a large, three-barrelled cannon turret. Each one of the barrels Sel conservatively estimated to be similar in size to a Gojulas Supercannon. The turret looked like it had been taken from some sort of ship. Its construction was rather worn, and the metal was both charred and bent in places as if it had been in a battle. There was another one next to it.

"Where is this from?" Sel asked.

"Take a look at it from above." Rose replied. She pointed to a pile of curved hexagonal slabs whose origin and nature Sel couldn't begin to guess at. "You'll get a better view form up there."

A few minutes later Sel was up there, Matt next to her. She looked down at the turret. There was a faded, battered symbol on it, resembling a five-pointed red star inside a white outline.

"I've seen this symbol before." She whispered to Matt. "It's an older version of our normal symbol. It was used before Chrom's coup and-"

"And?" Matt asked.

"And it was used on the ship that bought us here…" She trailed off. The Sovetskii Soyuz. The greatest ship ever constructed by mankind. The largest object to ever cross interstellar space. Its first and last flight had been the one that bought them here.

Matt looked at her. "But it was an exploration ship." He said. "It was unarmed and…"

Sel climbed up next to the pair of them. "Reality sucks, doesn't it?" She looked down "It gets better, though, kiddies. You haven't seen anything yet."

"What else is there?" Sel asked. "Just about everything I ever knew has been proven to be wrong."

"I can fix that one." Rose replied. "But for that we're going to have to take a little trip to the big, bad outside world."

Before Sel could reply, there was a loud metallic clanging sound. As one, the three of them turned to see a large door opening in one wall. "I thought you said this was the only way down here." Matt began.

"It's the only one we could easily and discretely access." Sel replied.

"Well, whoever it is, they're going to see us up here." Rose offered. As one, the three of them scrambled off the mound and scrambled for cover. They decided on one of the cannon turrets.

They watched silently, hardly daring to breathe. A silver and black Gustav, a version particular to their forces, rolled into the bay, accompanied by a number of troops. As they watched, the Gustav advanced across the bay, the troops fanning out to cover it.

"Awfully paranoid, aren't they?" Rose whispered. "Especially considering that nobody is meant to know they're here."

"What are they after?" Sel whispered.

"The question is, what is there in here that is immediately usable?" Matt asked. "Most of it is junk anyway."

The Gustav stoped by one of the Nanotech forges. The trailer-mounted crane arms deployed, swinging out over the forge. As they watched, it lifted the forge, then swung it onto its back. The troops moved to secure the forge on the back of the Gustav, testing that it was secure before throwing a tarp over the back and tying it down.

"Now this is interesting." Rose muttered.

The Gustav and troops crossed the room again, returning through the armoured door. It was only after the door had sealed shut again that anyone dared to move.

"What was that about?" Sel asked as she walked out form behind the cannon. She watched the door intensely, as if waiting for it to move.

"Maybe they needed the forge." Matt replied. "You did mention that these were reserves, Captain O'Bannon."

"Naw, they wouldn't have come down here with troops and then smuggled it out under a tarp if they did." Rose replied. "I recognised one of those troopers from the Special Operations Squadron, and I'm willing to bet that the others were from the same place."

"Special Operations Squadron?" Sel asked. "But aren't you in command of that?"

"Was, past tense, sis." Rose replied. "De Lyon yanked them away from me two days ago."

Sel looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "That's interesting. I returned only two days ago with the journal. De Lyon personally collected it from me."

"Rrrrrrreeeeealy." Rose replied in a way that reminded Sel of Vic. "De Lyon gets journal. De Lyon gets special ops squad. Troops from special ops squad get nanoforge from place where only someone who had read the journal would know about." She looked at the pair of them. "I'd say there's something very, very interesting going on here." She smiled.

"You said something about showing me the truth behind the great destiny." Sel said, remembering what they were talking about earlier.

"Yeah, there is that." Rose said. "Tell you what Sel. We'll get back to the real world, and then I'll show you." She turned around to face them, and smiled. "Trust me, you do not want to miss this for the world."

-


	38. Foundation

_From my observations of this city and its people, as well as analysing the records provided to my by Colonel Chrom, I can draw the following three conclusions._

_First, the city's current inhabitants are not its original inhabitants. Nor do they appear to have any connection to its earlier inhabitants. The most likely have arrived in the last thirty to fifty years, and their colonisation of this city may not have been entirely planned._

_Second, the previous inhabitants of this city were not likely its actual builders. There appears to be at least two substantially different periods of construction during this city's history, most notably the central power core. It is likely that this set of inhabitants found the city themselves and remodelled much of it to suit their needs._

_Third, the city's original builders probably predate human arrival on this planet._

-Captain Adrian Quentin, Imperial Armed Forces

-

Neopolis

Shelflands Continent

23 AC (After Colonisation)

Even though it was just a new city, having only existed for a decade, Neopolis was already a large one. The city had grown out form a clump of recycled ship modules to a veritable metropolis, rivalled by only a few other cities on this new world. Parts of the city had already become a maze of crowded streets weaving between the pre-fabricated buildings.

While chaotic and disorganised, the city's sprawling mess served some of its inhabitants well. Andraes Chrom was one of them. A scientist by training, he'd joined the Zi colonisation mission to create a new, ideal society on a new world. Unfortunately, the majority of the colonists on the mission weren't idealists but criminals who had come here to escape the inevitable back home.

Unfortunately Zi's predominant local life form had turned out be giant, mechanical animals. Machines that were apparently designed to be controlled by humanoid pilots. Someone had discovered how to control them. Pretty soon, there was a planet full of criminals armed with giant war machines. You didn't need to be a brilliant scientist to figure out what happened next.

That's why he was doing what he was doing. He realised that it was probably too late to stop the madness, but he could at least try to save some from it.

Ducking into a dark alley, he knocked on a door on the side of a drab building, no different from any other building in this city. "Who is it?" A voice form the other side hissed.

"Prometheus" he replied, giving the code-name he'd dreamed up himself.

"Enter." The door opened and he slipped inside. "Did you get it?" The man inside was short and wiry looking, more nervous now that the door was open and he could be seen.

"I did." He replied. "We have to tell the others. I fear we cannot wait too much longer."

They walked down a hallway to a small, crowded room. A group of people, men and women most in their early to mid fifties, sat crowded around a single table. A small computer sat on the table, linked to a large screen hanging on the wall.

"I'm sorry to call you all here so urgently." He said. "But I think I have found what we are looking for."

There was a murmur form the crowd. For years, they had been searching for a place to build their dream society, an ideal many of them, like Andares, had come to Zi to follow. Like Andares, many of them had found that reality had effectively crushed that dream. That they wanted was a place they could start anew without any risk of being embroiled in the wars that many felt were inevitable in the current climate.

He put a data disc into the computer and hit a couple of buttons. The large screen lit up, displaying a map. Many recognised it as being the so-called "Dark" continent that lay to the north of the Shelflands. "As you know the Crofthenge expedition to the Northern Continent of two years ago never made it back to civilisation." He began. "However, some artefacts of the expedition were recovered. Amongst them was a detailed journal of their findings."

The map zoomed in on the far western end of the continent, and then further in on a single valley with a large mesa at the end of it. "In this valley, they discovered incredible. The mesa you see here is in fact hollow. Inside it is possibly the greatest Zoidbuilder artefact yet discovered."

There was another murmur from the crowd. The Zoidbuilders was the popular name for the now extinct race that had inhabited Zi thousands of years ago. A race of humanoid gold-skinned androids, they had mysteriously vanished from the planet leaving behind only ruins. A few items had been found; chiefly massive battlesuits that dwarfed anything the humans had with them. Some of these suits had a degree of similarity to the early Zoids, which had lead to the speculation that this race had built them as well.

Of course, there were those who theorised that the Zoidbuilders themselves were the product of an older still civilisation, arguing that incredibly advanced Androids couldn't just evolve naturally. Since no trace of that race had been found, it was a matter of conjecture.

"Inside the mesa is a massive, artificial cavern." He continued. "In fact, it's possible that the entire mesa is artificial. At the centre of it is a power core, which Crofthenge believed tapped into the planet's own core for energy. Free unlimited power for everyone." He allowed a moment for them to take this all in.

"That's all well and good." Someone in the crowd began. He instantly knew who it was. Gavin Greaves, a computer engineer and perpetual complainer. He agreed with Andares' ideals, but they often clashed over what to do about them. "Its thousands of kilometres from anyone else. That's thousands of kilometres of barren, hostile terrain we'd need to cross in order to get there, in an area that's approaching an artic climate."

"Yes, it's far away from the rest of the world but it's also hidden from the outside." He replied. "These two facts combined mean that we will be able to build our ideal society without any interference. And it has all the power we could ever need to support that ideal." He looked around. "Think about it. No war. No threat of war. No petty men with their dreams of conquest trying to crush what we are building."

He had a son, who had been born here on Zi. "Yes, it will be a long and difficult journey to get there. Yes, it will be hard to make this place our home. However, once we get there, it will be worth it. Think of what we can do, and the world we can create. Think of our children and their children and the world we could build for them."

-

The Ruins

The Dark Continent

25 AC

The cavern was enormous. There was no other way to put it. From the central core, it stretched out in a perfect circle for a kilometre, before reaching the rock walls. At its highest, the ceiling was three hundred meters high, curving down to a mere One hundred and fifty at the edges. The roof was covered with innumerable giant lights that would, when activated, provide the equivalent of daylight to the people inside. Two entrances had been found in the mountain. One was a massive pair of doors facing east that lead into the main city. The other was a pair of smaller doors in a section of the roof that lead to a separate bay in the roof, probably used for launching aircraft.

And that was just the upper half of it. Below that was at least fifty meters of rock, interlaced with numerous passages that carried power, water and communications; all the infrastructure that a city would need to function.

And that was not the end of it. Below that was another cavern, larger then the first one. Two kilometres across, it was a consistent five hundred meters high. The edges of this cavern were far rougher and more irregular, as if its creators weren't finished with building it. Unlike the upper cavern, this one was largely empty. Below that was another fifty meters at least of sub-levels, descending into the depths. And even that may not have been the end of it, but certainly as deep as the explorations had reached so far.

Unlike the lower level, the upper level was a city, or at least had been one at one stage. A regular street grid had been laid out like an old-fashioned cartwheel. A series of eight "spokes" went out form the central hub that was the power core. Four circular roads connected the spokes at regular intervals out from the core.

The buildings themselves were odd, to say the least. The sections between the spokes were dominated by hemispherical buildings, the structures of which were composed of a series of interlocked hexagonal plates, composed of an unknown material. Some of the sections supported multiple domes, while many had none at all. Inside the domes was largely empty. Some, however, showed distressing signs of violence; as if there had been some fighting within the city.

The incomplete nature of the domes, as well as the largely empty lower level, had left many to theorise that its builders abandoned the city in a hurry before it could be completed. They had, however, completed its power core.

The core was immense. It was a massive, vaguely conical structure that had its tip near the very top of the cavern, and its base down in the depths of the lowest sublevels. Even then, it was suspected that it descended far below that. Parts of its surface had massive, thick cables connected to it that flowed into the sublevels below the city. Many more empty ports were spread across its surface, which added to the impression that the city was far from complete.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Andares said, looking up at the core. He and his small survey team had been working non-stop for the last month since they, and their followers, had arrived there. Their task had been to discover as much as they could about this city, so they could plan their new, ideal society.

"Now all we need to do is switch it on." Jon De Grout, his second in command on this expedition added. "That shouldn't be too hard. As far as we can tell, it's been in a 'standby' mode for, well, we have no idea how long. Everything seems to indicate that it's working. Seems." He added. The alien script used by the Zoidbuilders was difficult to translate, but they'd made a few guesses as to the meanings of some of the things they'd found.

"So what are we doing about the Zoids we found?" Elissa Forrester, one of his other assistants asked. She had been a biologist previously, conducting research into the planet's native life forms. She'd been given the task of studying the various wild Zoids that had been found around the city. "There's a considerable number of them and, for the most part, they appear friendly."

"I'd like to leave them as they are for now." Andares said. "We're trying to build our own new world here. The last thing we want to do is change theirs."

If Elissa said anything in reply, she didn't share it with anyone else.

"So have you thought of a name for our new city?" Jon asked. "Or are you going to go for the old standbys?"

"Old standbys unless someone else thinks of something better." He said. "I was going to call it Eden. Our new home, our new start. Our chance at building a better world."

-

Eden

The Dark Continent

59 AC

Dr Eric Chan angrily stormed into the lab, slamming the door open in violation of all the normal rules of safe conduct in such a place. "What the hell do you think you're doing" He shouted as he entered. He was a short, thin man, normally of a quiet and nervous disposition. However, today he had a very good reason to be upset.

"My work." Dr. Claire Forrester, his sometime research assistant and currently the lab's only occupant replied. "My work that has been officially approved by the governing council of this city." There was a hint of smugness in her voice.

"They what" He said.

"They officially approved my project." She replied. "Not only that, but they've given me a considerable amount of funding for it. We're talking millions here, Eric." She smiled. "I was really hoping you'd join me on this one. It's a challenge that I'd think you'd enjoy."

"Why would I want to work on that... that..." he gestured to the window at the far end of the lab. "That thing"

"Because it's our chance to shape the evolution of a Zoid." She said.

"I don't understand."

"Since humans have been on this planet, the number and types of Zoids has only increased." She replied. "Look at the Iron Kongs. There was one species when we arrived here, and now there's four." He nodded. The Baddox and Gore versions of that Zoid had appeared only after Humans had arrived, and they'd heard of a new, black and yellow-coloured species as well. "Now think of what we could do if we could control the way new types of Zoid developed."

"Didn't we already try that with the Redhorn experiment" He referred to the last time he and Claire had worked together. They'd managed to alter the core of a Redhorn, making it more powerful and aggressive. They'd also infused its armour with elements found only on the Dark Continent, which had turned it black with a sinister green glow to the motor and its eyes.

"Yes, but that was nothing compared to this." She said, turning back to the window. "I can make this creature far, far more powerful then it is now. Imagine a Zoid able to tap into its own core to increase its power. Or being able to survive damage to the core that would otherwise kill it, and recover." She paused. "I think, given enough time, I may even be able to split off a part of its core and use it to form a whole new species of Zoid. Can you imagine that"

"But why use that... Creature" He said. He knew what she was working on, and he didn't like it.

"It's an ancient machine." She replied. "It was old when humans arrived here. It may even be the first of its kind. Imagine that." She continued. "Think of it as a raw template, a prototype even. If a whole race could come form this one creature, imagine what we could do with it. Besides, it's not like we have any others of its kind here."

"You're insane." He snapped. "I'll have no part in this."

"Fine. Be like that." She said. "You can continue with your tiny, tiny little projects. I can always find someone more creative and far, far less whinny to work with. You're replaceable anyway."

Eric left, slamming the door behind him. Claire ignored him, looking at the massive, blood-red Zoid looming in the bay outside the lab. A Deathsaurer, one of the most powerful Zoids on the whole planet. This one was unique amongst them; nobody else had seen a blood-red one yet. They had found it on the outskirts of their territory, wandering alone in the wastes of the Dark Continent. And it was all hers.

She rubbed her head. "Don't worry." She said. "We'll be done soon. Then you will be more powerful then ever before."

-

Eden

The Dark Continent

60 AC

Even after thirty-five years of continual habitation of Eden, the city would still be recognisable to those who found it. Relatively early on, they'd "sealed off" the core from the rest of the city. There were a number of reasons, simple aesthetics being amongst them. Likewise, most of the Zoidbuilder domes from the first habitation of the city remained; a few of the more damaged ones had been torn down, as the new inhabitants had no means to repair or replace the advanced materials used to construct them. New buildings had grown up around the domes, but the people had managed to keep the city open and uncluttered.

Unfortunately, that could all be about to change. Many had feared that Eden's isolation couldn't last forever. Unfortunately, they had been right. Three months ago, a group calling themselves the Unifiers had discovered Eden's location. The Unifiers had a policy of "unity and peace or else." Eden, being an independent community, had become their target. Ironically, they operated out of Neopolis, the city where the Edenite movement began.

Captain Marcus Chrom looked out over the city as his Iron Kong was raised into position from the hanger facilities below. His grandfather had been the visionary who had founded this community. His father had, with some reluctance, become its first military commander. Now he, who had lived his whole life here, would defend it.

"They're at the main gates already!" A panicking soldier reported. "The last defensive line has fallen! They're breaking through!"

"Remain calm and hold your position!" He shouted as his Iron Kong stepped off the elevator. "Remember, we must protect our city!" The Iron Kong stopped between a Redhorn and one of the new Darkhorns.

A beeping on his control panel grabbed his attention for a second. Switching it over, a comms screen opened with the face of Dr Claire Forrester, one of the heads of weapon development, on it. "Captain." She began. "The new weapon is ready for us to use. We'll raise it in position as soon as the enemy are through the gates. Wait until it has begun its attack, then move in to deal with the survivors."

"Right." He said. He'd heard about this new 'miracle weapon' that Dr Forrester and her team had been supposedly developing over the last year. Whatever it was, it had better be powerful. They needed it.

"They're breaking through!" Somebody shouted. "They're breaking through!"

Marcus looked up at the doors. A hit from the other side dented them, shaking the massive doors. Another followed it, then another. The doors slowly creaked open, as if someone were forcing it. Squinting through the widening gap, Marcus could see shapes on the other side. A lump formed in the back of his throat as he recognised one of them. An Ultrasaurus. The Unifier's lead Zoid. This single machine had destroyed so many of their Zoids, while appearing to be unstoppable itself.

Whatever Dr Forrester's weapon was, it had better be good, he thought to himself. As if to answer his own question, her face appeared on the comms screen again. "We're moving it into position now. Stand by, captain."

Behind him a Zoid elevator slowly raised into position. On its back was a massive, bipedal red and black Zoid. Unlike the other Zoids of their forces, it wasn't bright red, however. It was a deep, dark, blood red colour. Through his neural link, he could feel a degree of apprehension from his Iron Kong. Possibly even... fear?

"A Deathsaurer" He asked Claire. "That's your secret weapon" Eden had been forced to build its own small army for self-defence, but they didn't have any Deathsaurers.

"Not just any Deathsaurer." She replied, smiling. It was then that he realised something. Most Deathsaurers were a dark brownish black colour with bright red highlights. This one was blood red and black. What the hell was it, he thought. "Captain Barren, fire when ready."

"Affirmative." Came the reply from the Deathsaurer. Marcus recognised the voice; Jon Barren, one of his childhood friends. They both had joined the self defence forces, and gradated at the top of their class, Jon slightly ahead of him. He'd heard Jon had been moved on to some special project, but he had no idea it was this.

The doors opened, with the Ultrasaurus stepping into the city. Behind it was a pair of Gojulas, a pair of Gordos and numerous other, smaller Zoids. Glancing at the Deathsaurer, he could see it standing there, as if it was waiting for something. Then something caught his attention. The fan on its back began to spin, building up an energy field around it. He'd heard about; the fan on its back acted as an intake, providing power for its charged particle cannon.

The Deathsaurer thrust its head forward and opened its mouth, a brilliant blue-white beam emerging from it. The beam shot out, tearing across the empty street and struck the Ultrasaurus dead centre, continuing through it as if it wasn't there. For a moment, the gutted, headless carcass of the Ultrasaurus stood there as if it couldn't believe what had happened, then it simply exploded.

Marcus simply stood there in shock. He'd heard that the Deathsaurer was powerful, but that powerful... It had just effortlessly destroyed the Unifiers' only Ultrasaurus, something they'd been trying to do for months with no success. Its escorts, the Unifiers' other heavy Zoids that were already inside, realised that, all of a sudden, the tables had been turned.

"Now." Clare began. "Move in your troops to engage the enemy. The Deathsaurer's cannon will continue to fire to provide support for your troops."

"Y-yes." Marcus replied, a little nervous. This Zoid, the Deathsaurer, was their weapon, They controlled it. It would allow them to defeat the unifiers and preserve their freedom. So why was he afraid of it? It must be nerves. There was still a lot riding on the battle. Ignoring his worries, he opened the throttle on his Iron Kong. The massive Zoid began striding across the city, the Redhorn and Darkhorn behind it. All around him, other Zoids began to move out from their concealed positions, moving towards the enemy.

The Unifiers' Zoids were still pouring in through the doors, but were far less confident then they'd been before. Rather then trying for straight-up engagements, they were running and hiding, looking for cover. Definitely a wise move, he thought. He dropped his targeting reticle onto a Gojulas, and prepared to fire, when it was impaled by another beam from the Deathsaurer. The Gojulas was torn in half, its upper body and head destroyed by the blast.

"Amazing." He muttered.

"Captain" One of his men asked over the communicator.

"Sorry." He said. Locking up the other Gojulas, he launched the two back-mounted heavy missiles at it. The shots hit the Gojulas, tearing away one of its arms and sending chunks of its torso armour flying. "Close in and take out as many of them as possible! We have to turn them back"

The damaged Gojulas and one of the Gordos had noticed his Zoid, and returned fire. Numerous smaller shots bounced off the Kong's dense armour. Not wanting to risk being hit by anything heavier, he leaped to one side, ducking behind one of the domes. The Gordos fired again, its twin heavy canons shattering the dome and flushing him from his cover. Dashing across the road to another block, he came up short. Much to his surprise, there was a Godos and a Guysack lurking in amongst the buildings.

He recovered first, driving the Iron Kong's fist down onto the Guysack. The small scorpion Zoid simply crumpled, driven into the ground by the impact. The Godos pilot opted to run, rather then standing and fighting the Iron Kong. A wise move, he thought.

Turning his attention back to the Gordos, he dropped the crosshairs of the missile targeting system onto its bulky form. Before he could attack it, however, someone else took the opportunity to strike. A red Sabre Tiger leaped out from behind a building, landing on the Gordos' back. The pilot dug the armoured attack claws into the other Zoids's back, the Gordos roaring in pain. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Sabre Tiger reared back, then dug its fangs into the Gordos' exposed neck.

Then, from out of nowhere, the beam struck. A massive blue-white beam of energy tore through the air, striking both Zoids. Neither had a chance to react before they simply vanished in a brilliant ball of energy. Shocked, Marcus turned to the source of the attack only to see that it had come from the Deathsaurer itself.

"What the…" He began, then realised that the Deathsaurer was turning towards him. "Jon!" He shouted. "What are you doing?"

The Deathsaurer's pilot didn't reply to him, but the Zoid did. It opened its mouth again, preparing to fire. Not wanting to risk another attack, Marcus threw the Kong into a run, desperately seeking cover. The Deathsaurer fired again, its head not quite tracking the fast-moving Zoid, instead tearing a trail of destruction across the city.

In desperation he tried to reach the command centre. "Someone… anyone… this is Captain Chrom. That… thing… It's opening fire on our forces!"

Dr Forrester's face appeared on the screen. "Forrester here. What's it doing?" She asked.

"Your damn monster just deliberately killed one of my men and tried to kill me." He replied. "And it just wiped out a city block trying to do it."

"It what?" She said. "Surely you're mistaken."

"There's no way its pilot couldn't have seen my man that it killed." He replied, angrily. "It deliberately fired on an enemy Zoid while he was in the line of fire. Then it tried to kill me." He looked over to the Deathsaurer. It had turned away from him, having apparently found something else to destroy. "Now tell me how to stop it."

"Stop it" She began. "Captain, that is a Deathsaurer. The ultimate Zoid." (He'd heard legends of the Omega, the King Gojulas, that was supposedly bigger and more powerful, but he decided to leave it off for the moment.) "You cannot stop it."

"Well I'm going to damn well try." He replied.

"I'm going to try and contact the pilot." She said. "Perhaps he has problems with his targeting or IFF system. Yes, that must be it." She didn't sound convinced, almost like she wanted to believe there was some pilot error, when she knew what was really going on.

"You do that." He replied. "In the meantime, I'll try to save our city for what you've unleashed." He abruptly ended the connection.

Looking up, he could see the Deathsaurer moving slowly across the city, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Nothing, not the buildings they had constructed, not the ancient Zoidbuilder domes and certainly not any Zoids, Edenite or Unifier, had escaped destruction. All around him, he could see the city in flames. He quietly cursed the minds who had created that machine. They were safe on the lower level of the city while everyone else was up here facing what they had unleashed.

His sensors alerted him to a nearby Zoid. It was the Gojulas he had damaged before, limping out form behind a building. "You fools." Its female pilot snarled at him over the communicator. "Look what you've done. That machine will destroy us all."

Marcus had heard the legends and seen the archaeological evidence. Centuries, possibly even millennia ago, something had destroyed the Zoidbuilder race and wiped them off the surface of the world. There were some that suspected the Zoids had been the ones responsible. After all, they did have a degree of self-awareness that allowed them to function without pilots. If that was the truth, then the Deathsaurer was certainly the agent of that destruction.

"Could this machine have done it" He asked himself.

"What" She snapped.

"Sorry." He replied. "Look... We need to stop this thing. Both my people and yours."

"Why should we help you" She replied angrily. "You unleashed that... thing. You can deal with it."

"But what if we can't stop it" He replied. "What if it comes after you? What if it finds some other city and destroys that? What if it finds its way back to Neopolis? Are you ready to accept that"

The Gojulas regarded him impassively. He wished he could see through the canopy to see the pilot's face and figure out what she was saying. "You're right." She finally admitted.

"Now try to get together as many of your men as possible." He wasn't sure if she was their commander, but a Gojulas could command a lot of respect regardless. "I'm going to get the survivors of my unit together. Hopefully, that will be enough to knock that thing out."

"Do you know how to stop it"

"I can find out." he said. Reluctantly, he reopened the link to the command centre. Dr Forrester immediately answered it, appearing tired and haggard. "What happened" He asked.

"You... you have to stop it." She replied. "Barren... he went mad. I don't know what happened. You need to stop him before he kills us all."

The irony of the situation was not lost on him. "So how can we stop it"

"The fan..." She began. "The particle intake fan on its back is its weak spot. If you can hit it with something strong enough, it will go through and damage, possibly even destroy the Deathsaurer's power system."

"Right. Now all I need to do is get there." He muttered. "All units! We're taking that monster down! Your objective is the intake fan on its back. If we can get through that, we can defeat it" He didn't want to think of what they would need to do in order to get there.

Turning back to the Gojulas, he could see a battered group of Zoids forming up behind it. Immediately, he could make out a Gordos, a Mammoth, several Godos and Guysacks, but he suspected there would be more. "It's only a fraction of what we started with." The woman said. "But it's all I have."

"It's a start." He looked around at his own men. He could see a Redhorn, a Darkhorn and a Saber Tiger, with Molgas, Marders, Iguans and others lurking behind. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." She replied.

"Let's go."

The battered, mismatched group of Zoids advanced into the city, cautiously approaching the Deathsaurer. For the moment, its pilot didn't see them or, at least, didn't care about them. It was firing on the city itself, trying to destroy anything in its path. Marcus dispersed his troops so they would approach along several different paths. That way, he grimly realised the Deathsaurer couldn't kill them all at once.

He stopped the Iron Kong at an intersection and lined the Deathsaurer up in his sights. It still had its back to him. Good, he thought. Maybe, just maybe, I can pull this off. Zooming in on the target, he locked onto the intake fan. There.

Suddenly, the Deathsaurer turned to face him. Opening up the throttle, the Iron Kong broke into a run just as it opened fire. The beam obliterated the intersection and the nearby buildings, its path tearing across the city.

"Now! Everyone… attack!" he shouted.

A pair of Marders sprinted out form behind a building, firing on the massive Zoids' back, both trying to get a shot at the fan. The Deathsaurer replied with its back-mounted cannons, destroying one of them. The other charged in, trying to close the distance to get in a point-blank shot. Without turning, the Deathsaurer simply batted it aside, crushing it with its massive tail.

No sooner had they been destroyed then more Zoids appeared to take their place. A team of Guysacks and Godos charged at it, firing on its chest armor to little effect. The Deathsaurer replied with its belly-mounted guns and rockets, scattering them, but leaving itself open for the charge of a Mammoth. The elephant-like Zoid rammed into the Deathsaurer, ramming its tusks into the Zoid's body, the dinosaur Zoid staggering under the impact.

The Deathsauruer replied, firing its main cannon into the Mammoth's back, simply destroying half the Zoid. Throwing it aside, it continued firing, wiping out the attacking Guysack squad, the rest falling back.

In their place, the Gordos, Redhorn and Darkhorn advanced, opening fire on its front. They knew they had only a limited window of opportunity before it could fire again, and were determined to press it. The Deathsaurer advanced on them, simply shrugging off their shots. Marcus added to their fire, supporting them with his shoulder missile cannon.

Behind the Deathsaurer, a mob of Zoids, both Unifier and Edenite charged, lead by the Sabre Tiger. Their plan was simple; hope that the Deathsaurer's attention would be held for long enough to allow them to strike. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The missile hatch on the Deathsaurer's rear opened, spraying the attackers with missiles. Most of the attackers simply collapsed under the impacts.

The Sabre Tiger continued, undaunted however. Marcus watched, gripping the controls of his Iron Kong in fear, as the bright red Zoid leaped into the air to strike. Before it could, however, the Deathsaurer's rear cannons fired, swatting it out of the sky. For an instant, Marcus felt shattered, realising their best chance to defeat it was gone.

Then he saw the something. As the Tiger fell away, another Zoid appeared behind it. A lone Iguan, desperately firing its boosters to remain airborne, sailed down towards the Deathsaurer, using the wrecked Tiger as cover. The Iguan crashed into the Deathsaurer's back, desperately grabbing on to the guns with its claw, while raising its right arm into the air.

Stunned, he watched the Iguan slam the cannon arm into the fan, and fire at point blank range. The Deathsaurer reared back, roaring in pain as the particle fan was torn apart.

"Now!" The Gojulas pilot shouted. "Destroy it!" Her Zoid charged out from its cover, firing on the Deathsaurer's flank. The Iguan crashed down from the back of the Deathsaurer, its right arm a tangled mess. The small Zoid rolled out of the way as the Gojulas rammed into the Deathsaurer, crabbing it with its one good arm and trying to dig in its fangs.

"What are you waiting for?" She shouted at Marcus.

"But…" he began. 'You're in the-"

"God damn it, just do it!" She shouted. "We're not getting another shot at this!"

"I'm sorry, Jon." He whispered, then fired.

The missile entered through the exposed fan, diving into the Zoid's interior. A massive explosion rocked it, fire belching out form the gaping hole where the fan was. Staggering, the Deathsaurer threw its head back, drooped forwards, fire and smoke coming from its mouth. The Zoid roared in pain, swiping at the air around it, before jutting its head forward again, and firing one last time.

The beam was far larger and wider the any they'd seen so far, as if the Deathsaurer was determined to kill as many of them as possible before dying itself. The Gojulas tried to step out of the way, but to no avail. The right side of its body and head were sheared off, the massive machine collapsing to the ground. The beam continued past, burrowing into the rock on the far side of the city, before dissipating.

Its last reserve spent, the Deathsaurer collapsed form the ground, smoke rising form numerous ports across the body. Its red eyes glowed through the shattered canopy glass for a moment, before going dark.

There was a long silence, as if someone was expecting something to happen. Marcus didn't want to look at the Gojulas; if the pilot had survived the initial blast - which had taken most of the cockpit with it - she wouldn't have lived long afterwards.

The few surviving Zoids from both sides gathered around him. Looking about, he could see what was left of the city. Much of it was in ruins, some in flames. Nothing had survived, not the ancient Zoidbuilder domes or the buildings they had constructed themselves. They had won, but at the cost of the city they had worked so hard to build.

"It's over." He muttered.

-

Neopolis

The Shelflands Continent

61 AC

The people of Neopolis could tell that the end was near. Word of the destruction of the Unifiers' army had gotten around. Rebellions had broken out all across the territories that they'd conquered. Soon armies had built up, all of which were marching on Neopolis.

Within a year, the city itself was under siege. Armies had encamped across the plains around it, content to try starving the people out. The Neopolis army had very little left to fight back withy. Most of their forces had gone missing in the Dark Continent, or had been destroyed in the subsequent rebellions. Now only a few Zoids remained, all of them primitive models that were amongst the oldest known types.

One morning, nearly a year after the destruction of their army, the end came.

The air defence radars picked up five incoming airborne attackers. They were large, flying high and fast, well above the city's defences but heading straight for it. The few flying Zoids left in the Unifiers' inventory, a handful of Pterasolos and Glidolers, were immediately scrambled to intercept, figuring that this was the opening move in the final attack on the city. Within a few minutes, they were gone.

Sirens rang out throughout the city. Practiced from months of drills and false alarms, the population moved into their shelters and prepared for the worst. The remnants of their armies, mainly Garius and Elephantus Zoids supported by a pair of Bigasaurs, deployed for combat. Whoever the attackers were, they were prepared to fight to the death to stop them.

They didn't have to wait long.

"They're coming!" A panicky Gorgodos pilot shouted. "They'll be here any second!"

"Remain calm!" Acting Colonel Heller shouted. His Bigasaur raised its head to look over his subordinates, scanning the sky for incoming opponents. "We must not panic. If we are to-"

He never finished his sentence. A cracking white energy beam speared down form the sky, obliterating the Bigasaur. The other Zoids around it tried to flee, only to be taken out by other shots.

A quartet of black, winged, serpentine shapes descended from the sky, their semi-transparent red wings casting eerie shadows across the city. Above them, a far larger black winged shape circled in the air, watching the events unfolding below. The large black Zoids landed, rearing up on their hind legs, flames billowing from their mouths.

The smaller Zoids of the Neopolis army didn't stand a chance. A few tried to fight them, only to be mercilessly destroyed by their attackers. Others decided to abandon their cause and flee, only to be chased down and destroyed by the faster airborne Zoids.

The attackers spared nothing in their destruction. No sooner had they destroyed what little resistance stood in their way then they had turned on the city proper. Within minutes, the once great city was ablaze, the black and silver Zoids striding through the carnage they had created.

The other armies around the city could see what was going on. None of them dared to intervene; if five Zoids could destroy a whole city so quickly, then they didn't stand a chance. Besides, they'd wanted to destroy the Unifiers and now they were gone. There seemed to be little point on doing anything else.

For the few survivors in the city, it was an unforgettable site. Perched atop the tallest building in the city, as if it was watching and revelling in the destruction, was a Zoid like none of them had seen before. It was a huge creature, far larger then the black and silver winged serpents, possibly as large even as the legendary Deathsaurer. It spread its black wings and roared into the red sky, its red eyes gleaming.

For the people of Neopolis, this was the face of death.

-

Less then half of Eden's population survived the attack. Soon afterwards, the decision was made to abandon the city and return to the Shelflands. Another third of the survivors would die on the long journey back. No effort was ever made to return to Eden, and soon all trace of the city was lost.

Marcus Chrom married, but died only a few years after the birth of his son. His unfinished memoirs would be passed down through the family, however few believed their contents to be anything other then fanciful. In time they would also be lost save for a few fragments.

-


	39. Colonisation

Location Unknown

Date and time unknown

With a burst of blinding light, followed almost instantly by a tremendous shockwave, the ship literally popped into existence. Onboard, dozens of system alarms all went off at once as they were introduced to a range of situations that they were entirely unprepared for. It was the largest and most powerful ship ever created by man. And it was doomed.

The bridge was total chaos. The ship was set up for a zero-gee environment where the only simulation of gravity was a downward force created by acceleration. However, the ship's entire complement suddenly found themselves falling towards the "bottom" of the ship (for want of a better word.) On the bridge, crewmembers scrambled for any purchase they could find rather then fall.

"What's happening?" Konstatinov, the captain, shouted as he gripped his command seat for dear life. A tall, bearded man with a stern glare and numerous combat scars, he was known for his ability to stay calm in the worst situations. This was proving to be very hard.

"Captain!" A female tech shouted back. "The ship appears to be in upper atmosphere of a planet! We're falling!"

"What?" He roared. The ship had never been designed for atmospheric re-entry. It was built in space and was expected to operate entirely in space.

"We appear to have emerged from jump inside the atmosphere of a planet!" The tech shouted back.

"Emerged inside an atmosphere?" He yelled back. "There isn't supposed to be a planet here!"

"Captain?" Another, calmer female tech reported. "We have numerous stress fractures appearing along the hull." The entire ship shook, throwing several people on the bridge from their perches. "Number three KKC turret has torn lose."

Konstantinov gripped his chair for dear life. "What's the status of the dropships?" As the ship itself was unable to enter an atmosphere, it carried a compliment of dropships designed to ferry personnel and cargo between a planet and the ship. The ships were secured for transport, but the moorings were never designed for this kind of stress.

"Docking collars are all running at over one hundred percent of maximum stress!" A tech shouted. "Number twelve has broken loose. No sign of the ship."

"Detatch all dropships immediately!" He shouted. "Instruct their commanders to make landing attempts as soon as free."

"Is that wise, captain?" The tech shouted back.

"If they detach now they have a chance, rather then going down with us!" He replied, then turned to another tech. "As soon as the dropships are free, initiate a level one structural purge."

"Captain?" She replied. A structural purge would blow a number of elements off the hull. External weapons systems, communications arrays, cooling fins for the reactors and the like would all be eliminated. The move was designed to allow the ship to rapidly decrease mass in order to gain acceleration in an emergency. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"If we don't, they'll rip off the ship anyway and take us with them." He replied. "Tell all hands to brace for impact. We're going down."

As Konstantinov spoke, he couldn't help but think of the ships' cargo and original mission. It had been a part of a fleet carrying refugees who were from their devastated, war-torn homes to a new world. Now thousands of lives were in his hands in a situation that he had very, very little control over and certainly had never planned on. Now he had to keep as many of them alive as possible. He grimly reflected that those few who were in the dropships may have been the lucky ones.

He tried to imagine what had happened. His ship had made the jump into jumpspace - the unreal non-dimension that trips travelling interstellar space used - as per normal. It had then emerged inside the atmosphere of a planet that should not have been there. Clearly something was amiss. Unfortunately, he realised, they may never know what.

-

Anyone watching from the ground on the Dark Continent that night would have been treated to a spectacular sight. A blazing trail of fire, brighter then either of the moons, tore across the skies leaving a trail of smaller lights behind it. After a moment, there was a spectacular display as numerous smaller lights broke away from it and began a slow decent towards the ground. A minute behind them was another larger display of smaller lights flying off in all directions.

The ship hit the ground at an angle, its bow forced up and the stern hitting the ground first. It bent, then broke about three quarters along its lengths, its massive engines being left behind by the rest of the body. The forward portion slumped to the ground, its momentum keeping it moving along the landscape, tearing huge chunks off its hull. After nearly a kilometre, it stopped, resting slightly to one side.

For a long, tense moment, it was quiet. The ship groaned as its hull cooled and settled onto the cold hard rock that would be its permanent home. The Sovetski Soyuz, the largest ship ever constructed by man, had made its final voyage.

-

Sovetski Soyuz

Northern Continent

1 PS (Planetside)

Much to everyone's surprise, there had been relatively few fatalities in the crash. The ships' hull had, for the most part, held together during the crash, the engine section notwithstanding. Most of the dropship crews had had been able to regain control of their ships and bring them down safely. The trail of debris left behind during the crash made for a distinctive landmark to home in on.

Surveying the area revealed very little about this new world. The land around was largely barren, composed of bare rock. There was no sign of habitation or life to be found. As far as the surviving crew and passengers were aware, they appeared to be alone on this planet. A wider area survey had found that it was like this for at least a hundred kilometres around. It appeared that they were in the northern hemisphere of the planet, likely toward the pole. They had been reluctant to go further, as something in the air or the rocks inhibited radio communication.

An astronomical survey using the few remaining sensors had helped little. The constellations in the night sky matched no known configurations, and no stars could be identified. The conclusion was that this world was outside of human space. A second, more worrying fact is that there was no sign of the Gateship, the vessel that opened the gates to jumpspace that bought them there. This meant that the gateship either had been destroyed in the accident that bought them here, or was still at the departure point. Either way, it meant that there was no way for them to leave this solar system.

With most of the dropships lacking the fuel to achieve orbit, and no clear idea of what they would do once there, they were slowly dismantled to be used as habitats. The small community of survival tents that grew up around the ships' hull gradually transformed into a bizarre looking town of large, domed buildings made from the dropships' actual hulls, surrounded by smaller, haphazard looking ones assembled form whatever components were stripped off them and the slowly vanishing main hull of the ship.

It was a tough life, but sustainable. The passengers and crew had come from a world devastated by war, a world that was on the verge of annihilation. In many ways, to them, this was a lot less demanding circumstances in which to live. Enough of the supplies and hydroponics bays had survived to keep up a steady food supply; they were far from prosperous, but at the same time far from starving.

Above all else, they were safe. Having lived for years with the threat of annihilation, the vastness of this empty land was strangely appealing in a way. If there was nobody out there, the thought went, then there was nobody to attack you. Nobody to kill you. Nobody to come and take what they wanted from you. The lack of native life forms was somewhat disquieting - after all, something had to be out there in order for there to be a breathable atmosphere.

When they discovered life, it was something of a shock.

An expeditionary mission, charting the area around the community vanished. When a search party found its last location, they came across a few scraps of their equipment and vehicles that indicated that they had been attacked by some sort of creature. Something large, equipped with teeth and claws strong enough to shred an all-terrain vehicle, and fast enough to catch it. Soon the community was rife with speculation about what could have done it.

A few days later, a look-out spotted a creature on the outskirts of the camp at dusk. It was some distance away, certainly too far to get a good look at it. But what they saw was terrifying. The creature's form resembled a prehistoric monster, bipedal with small forelegs and a large head that was likely full of sharp teeth. Its skin appeared to be jet black, blending into the dark greys of the rocks around it, while its eyes seemed to glow bright green. Nobody could tell how tall it was exactly, but it appeared to be at least twelve meters.

The creature sniffed around on the outskirts of the camp, not coming any closer. Those inside watched it in fear, too terrified to move. Nobody wanted to go out there in the off chance that it was aggressive or hostile. Certainly nothing they possessed would be capable of stopping it if it chose to attack.

After half an hour, the creature left, wandering off into the distance. Nobody followed it. Nobody wanted to run the risk that it may come back, or that there were more of them. It wasn't until the next morning that several patrols were sent out to search the local area for the creature or others like it. What they found was oddly disturbing.

The command centre had been built out of materials salvaged from the Sovetski Soyuz's bridge. In essence a smaller replica of the bridge, it had become the central hub for the fledgling community's operations. For Konstatninov, who had become the community's leader by default, it virtually was his home.

"So what exactly have we found, Macallister?" He asked as he slumped in his command chair. The last year had been hard on him, and it showed. He seemed to have visibly shrunk, his beard greying and his scars seeming so much deeper.

"It's interesting." His second replied. Macallister was a veteran marine corps colonel who'd seen action for the last few years. He had more field experience then anyone else who had survived the crash, and as a result he had been placed in charge of the community's exploration teams. He was a tall, powerfully built man who sported a shaved head and a ragged goatee beard and many combat scars. "To quote the cliché, its life, but not as we know it."

Konstantinov glared at him. "So what is it?" He asked.

"I'll show you." He put a data unit into a terminal, and bought the images up on screen. "The exploration groups found three different types of creatures on their travels." The screen showed a blurry, distance photo of a low-slung, lizard-like quadruped. The creature had black skin, a sleek, almost featureless head and a large hump in the middle of the back. "We figure this thing to be about twenty-five meters long, although as much as fifteen of that seems to be tail." He shrugged. "Someone called this thing an Iguanoid. If you ask me, it looks like the biggest damned lizard I ever saw."

He looked at the photo. There was something odd about the creatures' head, with something projecting out form the back of it. "What's the grey area around it's neck?"

"The boffins aren't too sure, but they think it's some sort of crest or frill." Macallister replied. "Sort of like a real Iguana, really."

"Do we know anything about it?"

"Only that they come in groups." He replied. Another picture opened, showing a clump of the creatures all lying on rocks, as if asleep. The resemblance to Iguanas was striking. "They could be aquatic, but that's just speculation and stretching the iguana analogy. They do appear to have sharp claws and probably a vicious set of teeth. No idea what's with the lump on the back though."

"So what else did they find?" Konstantinov found.

"This is specimen number two. We think it's the same one that came near the camp a few days back." The screen bought up a picture of a bipedal creature. Again it was black, but with a bright green underbelly. Like the Iguanoid, it seemed to have grey frills or crests protruding from the back of its head, and two large lumps in its back. "They call it a Tyrranosauroid, but I think just calling it T-Rex will do if we're in a hurry."

"What can you tell me about this creature?" Konstantinov asked, in no mood for levity.

"It stands about twelve meters tall and is about eighteen from nose to tail." He replied. "It's got lots of sharp pointy teeth and is almost certainly predatory." He indicated to the photo. "Like the Ignanoid, it's got a crest, and we think that the lumps on its back are some sort of bone projection."

"It's the same colours." He noted. "I guess it's an adaptation to blend in with the local landscape."

"The bright green chest is strange." Macallister commented. "It hardly seems natural. Still, it is an alien world. For all we know, pink skin could be really strange to them."

"If it's a predator, what does it eat?" He wondered aloud.

"The boffins think it eats the Iggys." Macallister replied. "But that's all theory now. Moving along, however, they found one last creature."

The screen bough up a picture of a large, heavyset quadruped animal. It was solidly built, resembling nothing so much as a rhinoceros, complete with nose horn. Like the others, it was largely black, but had a large grey plate on its back which was apparently connected to some sort of ridge or frill.

"We called this a 'Rhinoid', but one of the boffins thinks it looks like some sort of a dinosaur. Styraosaurus or something like that." He began. "We didn't get as good a good look at this one, however, so we can't say as much about it."

"Is there a reason?" Konstantinov asked.

Another picture came up, showing a heard of about a dozen of the creatures together in a heard. Oddly enough, they were all the same size - there were no young. "All we saw was that one heard. The one we saw alone was on the fringe of the heard anyway. Possibly some sort of watcher or sentry or something."

"So what can you tell me besides that?"

"Not much." He replied. "We figure it's twenty meters long and maybe ten tall at the peak of whatever that is on its back. Like the other two it's got a frill or crest on the back of its neck. Beyond that, there's very little."

"Did they find anything else?"

"Brief glimpses of some sort of avian, but nothing solid."

"I see." Konstantinov finished. "This doesn't look good. We're surrounded by large life forms, at least one is probably predatory and we have no real defense against them."

"Strictly speaking, no, sir." He replied. "I've been giving some thought to the matter though. We could try constructing a wall and digging a ditch, but even then I'm not sure how long that would hold one of them if it got hungry."

"Hmm…" He sat back, taking this all in.

A beep from a communicator interrupted his thoughts. "Captain, could you and colonel Macallister come up to the watch tower?" The soldier on the other end asked. "There's something you need to see."

Within a few minutes they'd arrived at the watchtower. Mounted atop one of the dropship hulls, it was the highest spot in the community, and commanded an excellent view of the landscape around them. "What do you have, soldier?" Macallister asked. This was normally his domain, but if they'd asked Konstatninov up here, the problem had to be urgent.

"It's a heard of those creatures, sir." A soldier replied, pointing off into the distance. Sure enough, a group of black and grey blobs was moving in the distance. Taking the soldier's binoculars, Macallister examined them closer. No mistaking it, he thought. Group of Rhinoids. Maybe even the same ones as before.

"Is it bad?" Konstantinov asked.

"Only if something happens to bring them our way." He replied. "Fortunately they seem to be passing us by." He looked through the binoculars. "That's odd…" He flicked a switch on the side of the binoculars. "Very odd."

"What have you got, Colonel?" Konstantinov asked.

"Thermal." He replied. "These things are hot, really hot. More then just usual life forms, they're…" he trailed off. "Its like they've got engines inside there. Big ones too. Oh-oh."

"What's up?"

"One of them has broken away from the heard and is heading this way." He replied, gravely.

"It's not charging, is it?" Konstantinov asked, apprehensively.

"No, it's just ambling." He replied. "But it's heading straight for us."

"Right." Konstantinov replied, then turned to the soldier. "Issue an alert. I want everyone indoors and secure. Nobody outside. I want this thing to go through unmolested and unharmed. Nobody is to provoke it. Nobody is to even go near it. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir." The soldier replied, then dashed down the tower.

"So if it did attack, what could we do about it?" Konstantinov asked.

"I have no idea." Macallister replied. "Frankly, I hope we don't find out."

-

Kelly O'Brien was a geologist by training. Like so many other people, she'd been able to squeeze her way onboard a ship fleeing the wars, trading certain death for a slim chance at life. Her inclusion amongst the crew was largely accidental, but now that they were planetside, she was very useful. She was one of the few trained geologists on the planet, and as such had been invaluable in trying to find out more about their new home.

Dark haired, attractive and a touch on the short side, she didn't fit the image of the traditional scientist in many ways. On the other hand, she did have the stereotypical obsessive interest in her chosen field. Right now she was studying a particularly interesting vein in a rock near the city. It was an unusual bright green colour, the band standing out from the dull grey rock around it.

Her communicator beeped. She ignored it, trying to chisel a little bit of the material free. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't yielding. Determined, she kept chiseling away at it. Whatever this was, it was far to interesting to pass up. The communicator beeped again, causing her to jump. Frustrated, she put her tools down. Fine, she'd find out what was the problem and then get back to work.

"What is it?" She began as she picked up the communicator.

"Kelly O'Brien?" The voice on the other end of the line began. "This is colonel Macallister."

"Sorry!" She squeaked. "What's up?"

"Stay very calm." He replied slowly. "Do not move."

"Um… Okay…" She stammered.

"When I say so, turn around slowly. Very slowly. Do not move otherwise. Do not run. Above all else, do not drop the communicator. Is that understood?"

"Y-yes sir." She said.

"Now turn around."

She slowly turned, dreading what might be there. When she stopped, she almost staggered back. Looming over her was a massive… shape. At first she thought it was some sort of tank or other vehicle. Then she realised that it was an animal, albeit a mechanical one. It stood on four stubby legs, and had a broad, rectangular torso. Its head had a massive horn in the middle of its nose, with four smaller ones protruding form the back of its head. A pair of green eyes, large to her but small compared to it, glared at her. A massive six-barreled cannon was mounted on its back, attached to innumerable other weapons.

"Kelly." Macalister's voice continued. "Tell me what you see there in front of you."

"I-its a dinosaur, sir." She stammered out. "It's a big black robot dinosaur."

"A robot?" He asked.

"Y-yes sir." She replied. "It looks like its mechanical, its got all sorts of vents and tubes and stuff all over its body and it has a really, really, really big gun on its back and all that makes it sound very robotic to me."

There was a long pause. "Is there any sign of a pilot or crew?"

"No sir." She replied, then jumped as the creature snorted loudly. "I think it's alive, sir. It just snorted at me."

"Alive?"

"Yes sir." She replied. "I don't know much but its acting like an animal to me. A big, scary animal that's got lots of guns on its back."

"Right. Do not move. Do not go anywhere. Do not do anything. I will be down there soon." He cut her off before she could say anything in reply.

"Don't go anywhere. Don't do anything. Easy for him to say." She muttered. The creature moved a little closer to her, to the point where its heavy jaw was almost in her face, as if it was trying to look at her eye to eye. "Eeep! Nice dino! Good dino." She slowly backed away. "I'm harmless. I'm just standing here, minding my own business. I probably don't even taste good. I mean, if a robot would eat people, that is."

Then it did something unexpected. It kneeled down, dropping its head to rest on the ground. Kelly stepped backwards, unsure of what it was about to do. It certainly seemed less menacing like this, but then she was now face to face with its massive horn. Then, much to her surprise, the top of its head, including the eyes, flipped open, resting on the back of the head.

For a moment she stood there, frozen with fear and confusion. Then she nervously stepped forward, looking at the creature. The top of its head now resembled nothing as much as an open cockpit - complete with a pilot's seat, she noted. "What's this?" She asked, as if she was expecting an answer form the creature. "Do you want me to get in?"

The creature grunted something. Kelly gulped nervously and took it for a 'yes'. She was very reluctant to argue with a huge black armoured monster with a gun nearly as big as it was attached to its back. She clambered over its cheek using the large round motor or servo or whatever it was sticking out from the side of the jaw as a handhold. Struggling over the side, she flopped down into the pilot's seat. No sooner was she in then the canopy shut, sealing her in.

For a moment, it was completely dark, the creature's "eyes" being apparently opaque rather then windows as she earlier thought. Then a screen switched on around her, giving her an open view to the outside world, as if the creature's head was transparent. A control console in front of her switched on, and began scrolling through data screens.

"Wait" She shouted. "Are you trying to show me something? Slow down"

The screen stopped on a three-view drawing of the creature, showing its front, top and side views. To her surprise, it was constructed in a very old-fashioned looking green wireframe on a plain black background. "Is that all you've got" she asked. 'Somebody who designed you liked black." The creature grunted.

Her communicator beeped, making her jump again. "Kelly" It was Macalistair. "Come in! What is going on"

"I-I'm here, sir." She replied. "Um... that is to say I'm inside the creature's cockpit. In its head."

"Cockpit" He asked.

"I guess it's like a fighter jet's cockpit or something." She replied. In trught, she didn't have much experience with such things beyond photos in books.

"What is that thing anyway"

She frantically looked around the cockpit, before glancing at the display again. It was now showing various labels attached to the illustration, presumably to indicate systems status. What surprised her was that they were all printed in English. "It's..." she looked around. "It's a DPZ-10 Darkhorn, apparently."

"Darkhorn" Macallistair replied.

"Yeah, it's a Darkhorn which is a..." She trailed off. "It's a Styracosaurus type Zoid."

"Can you control it" He asked.

"I guess." She replied. "I mean, its got a lot of controls and buttons and such, and there's this big lever over on one side that kind of slides up and down like a gearshift."

"That's likely some sort of throttle." He replied. "Do you have a control stick"

"I think so." She looked around. "Yeah." She eyed the throttle. "I think I can operate this."

"Do not touch it" He shouted. "Wait until we can get"

Before he could finish, she grabbed the throttle lever and pushed it up to the far end of the scale. The cockpit shock as the Darkhorn rose to its feet, then broke into a run. Looking out the front viewscreen, she could see that it was charging towards the town. "Stop" She shouted. "Slow down! Something."

"Kelly" Macalistair shouted. "Stop it"

"I don't know how"

"Use the control stick you found earlier"

She looked around. 'I see it."

"Then use it"

She grabbed the stick and yanked it hard to the right. The Darkhorn swerved away from the town, slowly coming around. Grabbing the throttle again, she slowed it down until it was doing little more then a slow trot. "I think I've got it under control, sir."

-

"So." Macalistair began. He was standing by the Zoid's foot with Kelly, who had somehow managed to find her way out of the cockpit. "You say it was designed for human control."

"Definitely, sir." She replied. "There were all the controls and the displays I mentioned. And they were all labelled in English."

"And yet you say it was unpiloted when you boarded it."

"Ummm..." She thought about it for a second. "Yes. Yes it was. There was nobody in the cockpit."

"Maybe it was operating by artificial intelligence." He pondered. "Interesting."

"Well the funny thing is, sir, that it seemed like an animal to me." She replied. "It's like..." She stopped, trying to think of a comparison. "It's like I used to have a horse, sir, when I was very young. It kind of understood me and would do what I told it to, but yet it was still an intelligent creature that had a mind of its own."

"And you say this... 'Zoid' was like that." He replied. "Like an animal that could be tamed and controlled."

"I think I was less its pilot as I was riding it, like a horse." She replied, trying to think of some way to put it.

"Interesting." He said. "The question is, do you think that the others are like it" He asked. "You saw the Tyrannosaurus monster a few days back. Do you think it could be another 'Zoid' like this creature"

"I think so." She replied.

Macalistair looked up at the creature. It was looming over the pair of them, seemingly oblivious to their presence. There was no way, he decided, that it could be natural. Its structure was clearly mechanical, and the huge cannon on its back couldn't be anything other then man made. Kelly had said that its controls were labelled in English. That meat that somebody had to have built this machine and the others like them. This meant that they were not alone on this planet. The question is, who else was there? There were only a handful of human settlements in space, and he knew this was none of them.

"That's good." He finally said. "These creatures... I think they could be very useful to us."

Because if there is somebody else on this planet, somebody else who can create and manufacture these machines, then we could be in a lot of trouble.

-

Sovetski Soyuz Colony

Northern Continent

3 PS

Peering out the front window of her jeep, Kelly tried to focus on the lights form the colony's towers. Outside, it was dark and blowing a blizzard, and the buildings themselves were for the most part grey having been constructed out of dropship hulls, which didn't make her task any easier. Squinting, she thought she could make out some lights more or less directly in front of her. Well, she thought, they had better be it. I can't think of anyone else it could be.

Less then a minute later, her jeeps' motor spluttered and died, the jeep quickly grinding to a halt. "Oh no" She shouted. "Don't do this to me" She retried the starter. The jeep made a few brief whining noises as the electric motor tried to reactivate, then went silent despite her protests. "You stupid, stupid, stupid machine" She struck the steering wheel, skinning her knuckles, and instantly regretted it. She'd been expecting this to happen for a while, but still wished it hadn't. The jeep, like much of the equipment in the colony, had been getting ever increasingly unreliable of late. She figured it was due to the lack of maintenance and replacement parts available.

"Okay, so where am I" She muttered. The colony lights were nearby so... she figured she couldn't be too far. That's the trick. She eyed the report sitting on the passenger seat of the jeep. She needed to get that to someone as soon as possible. Right, nothing left to do. Grabbing the report and shoving it into her coat, she opened the door and leaped out into the cold night.

Staggering against the strength of the wind, she stumbled towards a large lump in the snow, probably a buried rock or building or something. At least she hoed it was. If it wasn't, it meant that she was very lost. Clutching the hood of her coat and the report under her arm, she stumbled into the cover of the... whatever it was.

"Okay..." she puffed. "Time for... round two." Without warning, the pile of snow shifted. She stumbled out of its way as it stood up, limps of snow coming off to reveal a sleek, sinister black shape. A single glowing green eye, concealed under a clear canopy, regarded her.

She gulped with relief. It was a Heldigunner, one of the Zoid types they'd managed to 'tame' so far. The canopy slid back, and a pilot stuck his head out. "You need help down there" he shouted.

"I need to get back to the command centre immediately" She replied. "It's incredibly important."

"Sure thing." He replied. "I'd feel terrible if I left someone out here in these conditions." The Heldiguinner squatted low on the ground, allowing her to climb up to its cockpit. "It's a tight fit, sorry." he began as he helped her in. "These things were only built for one." The canopy closed behind her as if to illustrate his point.

"It's fine." She replied. "It can't be that far."

"Not a problem." He replied. "By the way, Karl Wagner." He offered his hand.

"Kelly O'Brein. Thanks." She shook it.

"Now hang on back there." He said as the Zoid started. "Normally this is a smooth ride, but this Heldy can be a little temperamental at times."

"I know how that goes." She said, thinking about her first ride in the Darkhorn. Since that day, the colony had been able to capture and 'tame' a number of Zoids. They'd managed to capture a number of Darkhorns and Heldigunners, and even a single Deadborder, the rather amusingly named Tyrannosaurus they'd first seen. To this day, however, there had been several signings of a mysterious winged avian Zoid, but nobody had ever managed to catch one on the ground. The presence of the Zoids had made their lives on this word a lot easier. The mechanical beasts had been adapted to aid in construction work to expand the colony, especially heavy lifting. And they also served as a deterrent to the other wild Zoids that were still out there.

Within a few minutes, the Heldigunner had halted outside the refitted dropship that functioned as the colony's command centre. After thanking Karl, Kelly climbed out of the Zoid's cockpit and scampered into the command centre, heading straight for the central operations room. "Sorry I'm late." She blurted out. "But my stupid jeep broke down again and I..." She trailed off.

Captain Konstantinov as present, as was Colonel Macallistair and a number of other people as she immediately identified as very important. Scientists. Engineers. Architects. All the big decision making people.

"Go on, Doctor O'Brien." Konstantinov began.

"Sorry." She began. "What I have here are the results form the core drilling experiments we ran. What they show is not pleasant." She looked around. "As you know, this year's winder has been exceptionally cold compared to the last two. We initially suspected that this was a temporary condition. However, our drills revealed otherwise."

She passed around a clipboard with the final report from the drilling team. "As you can see, the last two winters we experienced were, in fact, exceptionally warm. This was likely the result of a temporary climactic or weather condition similar to the El Nino phenomenon."

"So, in other words, this is a normal winter." Konstantinov stated.

"At least." She replied. "And the summers aren't going to get too much better then what we've experienced already, and most likely are going to be colder. In a way, it's to be expected. Where we are is close to, if not inside, the arctic circle of this planet."

"So, in other words, it's going to stay cold and not get too much warmer." Konstantinov finished.

"Yes sir." She replied. "And with the ongoing equipment failures and fatigue, that's going to make living conditions here very difficult."

"I see." He said. "Thank you, doctor O'Brien." He nodded towards another man who sported a beard and a somewhat battered brown jacket. "This is doctor Garden, the head of our hydroponics research unit. If you would, please."

"Thank you, captain." He began. "As you all are probably aware, all of our food comes from various strains that we grow in what's left of the ship's hydroponics bays. These bays were badly damaged during the crash, but most of their functionality has been restored. However, the systems that keep the bays running are themselves beginning to fail." He bought up a series of diagrams on the computer monitors. "In the short term, we can keep the systems running as they are and maintain a steady rate of production. However, if system failures continue at their current rate and the weather doesn't improve-" he eyed Kelly. "-then we could be facing severe food shortages, leading to mass starvation within a year."

There was a long silence. "There are sone options." He continued. "The most obvious is to give the hydroponics systems the priority for repairs and maintenance."

"And when that equipment breaks down?" One of the other men present asked.

"Then we replace it by scavenging for compatible parts from other systems." He replied. "At this stage, I would recommend giving them priority for scavenged equipment."

"Can we grow crops normally?" One of the few women there asked.

"Probably not." Kelly replied. "Most of the area around us is bare rock with a lack of flat ground, which basically prevents any agricultural uses. Even then, there are certain trace ores in the rock whose nature is still not yet fully understood and may inhibit any growth. The lack of vegetation around here is probably indicative of any results we'd get from trying." She looked around. "Even then, the climate wouldn't be conducive to crop growth. Not unless we can develop very hardy, cold-resistant strains."

So, in other words, we're stuffed, she mentally added.

Leaving the meeting for the moment, she wandered back to the entrance of the dome. Karl, the pilot who had bought her in was waiting by the frond door, his Heldigunenr squatting in the snow behind him. "Hi." He casually began. "Came inside because it was cold and I didn't fancy siting around in the Zoid all day."

"Mmm…" She muttered, somewhat distracted. She was still thinking about what they'd said inside. It all seemed to boil down to certain death.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Oh, sure." She replied, suddenly. "Fine. Great. Yeah."

Before he could reply, there was a loud whooshing noise, as if something large had flown overhead. Something passed through the sky in front of them, largely black but with lighter coloured wings. There was shouting in the distance, then the sounds of an air raid siren. Kelly shuddered at the sound. It'd been one she'd heard all too often years ago, and wish she'd never hear again.

"What was that?" She shouted out loud.

"I don't know." Karl replied. "But I'm going to find out." He ran over to his waiting Zoid and clambered into the cockpit. "You coming?"

Kelly looked around. It wasn't like she had anything better to do now. Certainly she didn't want to hear what was going on inside. "Sure." She replied, following him up. "I think it may be a new type of Zoid." She added as the canopy closed. "If so, I want to see it."

The Heldigunner set off into a run, ploughing its way through the deep snow. From outside, she could hear the sound of the siren, followed by shooting. There were flashes in the distance, probably from weapons fire. "Whatever it is," Karl began. "It's making a lot of noise. I'm guessing it's hostile."

"I suspect we'll find out." She replied.

The Heldigunner rounded a corner, arriving in a large clear area between buildings. Before them was a Zoid completely unlike anything they'd seen before. Like the others, it was black, but far more sleeker and slimmer then the others. A pair of broad green wings were on its back, and red claws dig into the ground, However, unlike the other Zoids, it didn't appear to be armed. The Zoid roared, but didn't seem to have a mouth.

Several armoured soldiers were around it, pointing assault rifles at the creature. Kelly had to wonder what they thought they were doing, as she couldn't see any way that their weapons would affect it. "You there in the Zoid!" One of them shouted. "Take that thing out!"

Karl reached for the targeting controls but Kelly grabbed his shoulder. "Wait a minute." She began. "Give me a headset."

"I hope you know what you're doing." He muttered as he passed her a communications headset.

"This is Doctor O'Brien" She began. "What's happening here?"

"This… thing just swooped down out of nowhere!" The soldier shouted back.

"Has it done anything hostile?" She asked. "Has it attacked anyone?"

There was a long silence. "Well, no…"

"Good!" She shouted. "Don't move, I'll be there in a second." She closed the link. "Karl, open the cockpit for me."

"What?" He asked.

"I'm going to go down there." She replied.

"What are you trying to do?"

"I'm something of an authority on first contact with Zoids." She replied. "I want to take a look at this thing. I want you to cover me. If it attacks me or does anything overtly hostile, then open fire. But not before."

"Sure thing." He replied reluctantly.

Kely slowly climbed out of the cockpit and walked towards the strange, winged Zoid. This could be it, she thought. A flying Zoid could be our way out of here. We could use it to find someone else on this planet or maybe find food or something… It might be our only chance for survival. She walked towards the Zoid and stopped in front of it, like she had done on that day two years ago.

The Zoid snarled and hissed, all seeming rather strange without a mouth, but didn't move as she approached it. Trying to remain calm, she walked right up to the Zoid so she was staring straight at it. Like the others, it has a bright green canopy cover that gave the impression of eyes. She'd wondered if that was an intentional design element, or if some whimsical engineer had planned it that way. She tried to think her way through it, doing her best to remain clam. While being smaller then the Darkhorn, this Zoid was still impressively large.

Up close she could see that it was quite different. It lacked the organic curves, spikes and tubes of the Deadborder and Heldigunner, as well as the many exposed vents and heavy equipment of the Darkhorn. She could see a second pair of legs behind the first pair; it had four legs and a pair of wings, she thought. It's a dragon, for want of a better word. Up close, it was clear that it had no weapons, at least, none visible. Unless it breathes fire at me, she mentally added.

The Zoid backed up a little, then bowed its head. Much to her surprise, the entire top of the head flipped forward, revealing the cockpit inside it. Looking around, she gave a "thumbs up" signal to the Heldigunner before climbing into the cockpit. No sooner was she in it, then the Zoid closed its cockpit cover and raised its head.

"So…" she began, strapping herself into the pilot's seat. The control layout was different to the Darkhorn's, but she expected that. After all, this thing had to walk and fly, she thought. "Right. Let's see what you can do."

She reached for what she guessed was the throttle, but before she even touched it, the Zoid began moving. "What the?" She shouted, then looked outside. The ground below her was dropping away as the Zoid slowly lifted into the air.

"Kelly, come in!" Karl's voice shouted through the communications headset she wore. "What's happening?" he asked. "Is it letting you pilot it?"

"I don't know!" She replied. "It's begun moving without me!"

"What?" He shouted.

"It just took off!" She looked around. The Zoid was now hovering over the colon, the lights of the community spread out below her. "It's just hanging here and-"

Before she could finish the sentence, and just so it could prove her wrong, the Zoid suddenly accelerated. No longer hovering in place, it began flying across the darkened landscape at considerable speed. Leaving the colony far behind, the Zoid sped across the countryside, weaving through canyons and over mountains.

"What the hell are you doing?" She shouted at it. She grabbed the throttle control and tried to yank it back to slow the Zoid down. Nothing happened. No matter what she did with either the throttle or control stick, the Zoid responded to neither. Great. This Zoid was off on its own little joyride and taking her along for the ride. She had to wonder why it had picked her up. Maybe it thought she was edible.

She tried her headset again, but got nothing but static. I'm probably well out of range, she thought. Looking over the Zoid's controls, she found what she figured to be a communicator. After flicking a few switches, she gave it a try. "Can anyone hear me?" She began. "This is Doctor Kelly O'Brien. Can anyone hear me?"

There was a hiss of static, then a voice on the other end of the line. "This is colonel Macalister."

She gulped. He was the last person she wanted to hear from right now. Whenever she was in trouble, he seemed to be the person there to see it. "Colonel… ummm…"

"What is your situation?" He asked, calmly.

"I'm in the cockpit of a flying dragon-type Zoid." She replied, pressing a few buttons on the machine's displays to bring up a map. "I'm about one hundred and fifty kilometres east-south-east of the colony and still going." She replied. "I don't have any control over the Zoid's actions I'm just along for the ride."

"What can you see?" He asked. "Is there anything outside you?"

She peered around at the viewscreens. "Nothing, sir." She replied. "I'm over, well, rocky, craggy terrain, like anywhere else around here." The Zoid dived down, closer to the ground, and started circling. "It looks like he's circling something, sir." She added. "As if he's coming in to land."

"What is it?" Macallister asked.

She peered out the window. "It looks like a large, flat-topped mesa, sir." She replied. "Or a small domed mountain. Something like that. There's a trench of some sort that leads towards it." She added.

"Can you see anything unusual about it?" He asked. "Any reason why this Zoid would be here?"

"Well, geologically speaking a trench opening up to a mesa is unusual, sir." She replied. "But besides that I can't thing why he's here… whoah!"

The Zoid dived suddenly, heading into the canyon proper. It zoomed along its length, as if it was intent to smash into the mesa wall ahead of it. Kelly watched the incoming wall, convinced that she and the Zoid were going to crash straight into it. As they approached, she saw something on the wall.

It was a pair of doors. A pair of massive, metal doors, built into the side of the mesa. And one of them was ajar.

"Kelly?" Macalister's voice on the other end of the line asked. "Kelly, are you there?" What's happening?"

The Zoid turned sideways, sliding through the gap in the door. Looking around, Kelly could make out shapes in the darkness.

They were buildings. Ruined buildings. The Zoid itself was following the path of a street. She looked out the other side, and then straight up. They were inside a city, hidden inside the mountain itself. A city that, she noted, was clearly human made.

"Kelly? Answer me!" Macalister's voice grabbed her attention.

"Sorry sir." She replied. "I- that is-"

"What is happening?" He asked sternly.

"I'm inside a city, sir." She replied. "A city inside a mountain. Well, it's a ruined city. But it looks like it was built by humans." The Zoid seemed to be flying around the city, as if it was showing it to her.

"Are there any sign of inhabitants?" He asked.

"No sir." She replied. "It looks to be completely abandoned. Of course, it is the first sign of civilisation we've seen on the planet, so…" Looking around, she could see that it was occupying the entire interior of the cavern, with a large pillar in the middle. Here seemed to be some lights on the roof, providing a limited degree of light. There were also shapes in amongst the rubble that she couldn't make out. "That being said, there is something in here that is providing power."

The Zoid pulled towards the central pillar. A hole had been shot in one side, big enough for the Zoid itself to enter. Passing through, it arrived inside a massive central shaft. Before her was a huge structure, cylindrical but tapering towards a tip. She couldn't see much of it, but it seemed that it was a technological construct, mechanical like the Zoids themselves.

The Zoid swooped up to the top of the tower. Kelly noted that there were several others of its kind there, clinging onto the sides and top of the tower. The Zoid settled, then dug its claws into the structure. Much to her surprise, many of the controls and displays lit up, as if they were glowing with power. The Zoid lot out a long, low howl, joined by the others around it.

"Sir?" She began. "I've found…" She looked around. "Well, I don't know what it is. But my best guess is that it may be some sort of power source. I think… I think these Zoids are feeding on it. My guess is that it's what's powering this place."

"Right." He replied. "Here is what I want you to do. Try to gain control of the Zoid by whatever means you see necessary. Try to bring it back here. Or, at the very least, keep broadcasting so we can know where you are. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." She gulped.

"Good." He replied. "Now, I also want to ask you something, doctor."

"Go ahead."

"This city you found…" he began. "Do you think it could be made inhabitable?"

She had to pause to think about it. "I think so, sir." She said. "And, to be honest, I think it'd be a better choice then our current home."

-

City Ruins

Northern Continent

3 PS

No sooner had Doctor O'Brien arrived back at the Soyuz colony in her flying Zoid (Which she now claimed was called a Reddra. People wondered why, as it was hardly red by any stretch of the imagination) then an expeditionary team had been put together to locate and explore this ruined city. Lacking suitable long-range transports, the team had been moved by a convoy of Darkhorns, the troops and support personnel riding on hastily constructed benches lashed to their backs.

The journey had been long, owing to the predominantly mountainous terrain between the colony and the city. However, once they arrived, few could say that it wasn't worth it. Upon stepping in through the front door, a structure that dwarfed their Zoids, they were awed by what they found.

The cavern containing the city was huge. At first glance, it seemed to be at least five hundred meters to the centre of the cavern, and presumably the same again on the other side. The roof had to be some three hundred meters high, they figured. It was enough to house the entire population of the Soyuz colony many times over. The city seemed to have its own climate; it was freezing cold outside, but reasonably warm indoors. It would probably be more if the door was closed.

By day a lot more was visible then when Dr O'Brien had flown through it. There the city itself seemed to be an interesting mix of architecture. The ruins of conventional buildings were found alongside the wreckage of large domes, constructed out of interlocking hexagonal plates composed of a strange material. There was no apparent sign of the occupants.

Save for one. The team had been surprised to find the carcass of a very large, unknown type of Zoid in the doorway. Numerous others could be found throughout the city, all of all in very advanced states of destruction. The survey team had been split up into two smaller teams. One would survey the city itself to determine its habitability, the other would catalogue all the wrecked Zoids.

The city survey team had taken the lion's share of the researchers. Finding out more about this place was more important, they argued. There would be time to catalogue the Zoids later. In the end, the Zoid team had consisted of most of the troops that had been bought along as security personnel.

So far they'd catalogued over a dozen different identifiable designs. One of them had caught their interest for being similar to the Darkhorn, but a bright red colour. If there had been more of it to examine, it'd be interesting to see if there were other differences. Most of the ones they'd found were smaller then their own Heldigunners, but there were a few larger ones, most bigger then the Deadborder or Darkhorn. Oddly enough, there was nothing in between.

Private Stall was the youngest of the troopers assigned to the team. He'd been a young, fresh-faced conscript when the Soyuz had left home, and as a result had seen very little action before arriving here. However, as he ran, he figured that what he'd just found was like nothing he'd ever seen, and certainly not like anything anyone else would have either. Clambering up a mound of rubble, he stopped next to sergeant Wilkins, his immediate superior. A scarred veteran of numerous battles, Wilkins was very different from Stall. "Sorry to bother you, sir." He began. "But you have to see this."

"Well" The Wilkins replied, looking at his breathless subordinate. "What's so important that you came all the way over here, yelling and screaming all the way"

"Wrecked... Zoid sir..." He puffed out.

"Yeah? So" He said. "This place is full of 'em." Which was the truth. Throughout the ruined city inside this cavern they'd found plenty of wrecked Zoids. The team were already joking about it.

"This one... it's not like the others. It's bigger and it's more complete." He wheezed.

"Oh really" The Wilkins asked. '"Well lets take a look at it. And no need to run, private. It ain't going anywhere."

They walked over to the site, the private leading. They climbed over a large mound of rubble, overlooking a large crater in the ground. Then he looked down. "Son, now I see why you got all worked up. This one's a great find."

Below them a giant Zoid lay in the rubble. Its armour was missing in places, with chunks of its structure exposed but it appeared to be whole. It was a deep, blood red colour, rather then the bright red they'd found on other Zoid types. In life, he figured, it would have stood upright like a Deadborder, but have been about twice as tall.

"What do you think it is" The private asked.

"Boy, I have no idea."

-

Novo Zemalya

Northern Continent

15 PS

After the survey team had returned with their results there had been a debate regarding moving the colony's population to the ruined city. It had been a very short-lived and one-sided affair. The ruined city offered them the shelter from the cold winters that they needed so desperately. Even if there were no standing structures at present, the controlled environment inside the dome would make conditions far more bearable.

The entire population of the colony had upped roots and made the long march to the city. They'd travelled in groups, using every available Zoid as pack animals to haul both people and property. Everything that wasn't nailed down and could be carried with them was taken there to aid in the construction of the new city. Though it took many days and seemingly innumerable trips, eventually the whole population was moved.

Not to let good materials go to waste, whatever parts of the original colony that could be salvaged were taken away to be re-used in building the new city. In time, the hulls of the Sovetski Soyuz and the dropships all but vanished, most of their bodies having been carted off for use as construction materials. Even a pair of the Soyuz's huge cannon turrets that had been found after the crash were taken for use as a possible defensive installation. In time, very little of the ships remained. The most visible remainder of their existence was the Soyuz's huge drive engines, still sticking out of the ground where they had been left untouched after the crash.

There had been some talk of eventually rebuilding the ship or something like it, and finding a way off the planet. Nobody had been willing to dismantle them in order to move them, as they doubted that they had the knowledge or infrastructure to rebuild them afterwards.

Examining the city had revelled surprisingly little. There had been a high-tech civilisation here that had been apparently destroyed by warfare. Remains of a few, long-dead people had been found, but they revealed little beyond the fact that the previous inhabitants had indeed been human. Who they were, where they came from and what happened to them remained a mystery however. As the years passed, however, it became apparent to the colonists that they were, indeed, alone on the planet.

The move to the city had made life easier in many ways. While there was a lot of work to be done in making the city liveable, the conditions were far less harsh then they had been in the Soyuz colony. The result had been a literal population explosion, with a very high number of births in the months after the great move. Due to a shortage of labour, the decision had been made to begin communal child rearing in communal crèches, while the parents returned to working on rebuilding the city.

That left only the mystery of the Zoids. Despite several years of working alongside them, the colonists had very little idea about what exactly they were, how they worked, where they came from and the like. The discovery of the destroyed Zoids in the ruined city had, however, proved to be invaluable to expanding their knowledge. The remanets of these Zoids were exhaustively studied so that more information about the creatures could be found. In particular, the large red Zoid proved to be a great source of information. It was far more intact then many of the others, and then it appeared that much of its damage was external.

The Zoid research bay was a massive structure. Built inside the lower level of the city, it was designed to accommodate numerous Zoid research projects at once. Half a dozen disassembled Zoid carcasses were currently occupying the bay, arranged around the one Zoid that was the centrepiece of their research. The large red Zoid, ominously identified from their research as being called a Deathsaurer, stood in the middle of them. Unlike the others, enough of it had survived to allow it to be stored in a standing position. Its damaged armour had been stripped down from its hull, leaving it as a gleaming metal structure, its various mechanisms and systems exposed for the world to see.

A low whistle caught the attention of a group of researchers working on the machine. As one they turned to see a uniformed man standing there, looking up at the machine. Young, handsome, tall, blond haired and square jawed, many recognised him as Matthew Austin, the recently promoted head of the armed forces. Many of the researchers considered him to be something between a nuisance and incredibly annoying. "She's a beauty, isn't she?" He asked nobody in particular.

Alexa Lavochkin, the youngest member of the research team, stepped forward to meet him, a very forced looking smile on her face. Short, pale and dark haired, she was pretty much his opposite in appearance. "Colonel Austin, what a surprise." She began. "How can I help you?"

"Well, I was figuring that since I'm now head of the armed forces, I should know a little more about what I'm working with." He looked around and then up at the Deathsaurer. "So I figured you guys were the best people to ask."

"Well, what do you need to know?" She replied. "I mean, we've already pretty much covered everything that we've learned so far."

"Well, I was actually interested in big red up there."

"Ah, the Deathsaurer." She replied. "Well, I think that my associates would be better for this." She indicated towards two of her colleagues working on the project. Dr Blohm was tall and lanky, with short hair. Doctor Voss, on the other hand, was short and fat, with thick hair. The two looked somewhat amusing next to each other.

"Ah!" He said, walking over to the pair of them. "So, what do you have?"

Alexa shook her head. She felt bad about leaving him with the pair of them, but at the moment she was in the middle of very sensitive work. Austin had managed to almost interrupt possibly the most important experiment they'd done on this machine so far.

One of their more interesting discoveries was of an organic core unit within the body of each Zoid. Apparently composed of a bizarre mixture of organic and metallic materials, it seemed to be something resembling the Zoid's 'heart' for want of a better term. Certainly it seemed to be vital to the functionality of the machine. The cores of all the Zoids they'd examined so far had been heavily damaged or destroyed, leaving very little to study. The Deathsaurer's core, however, had suffered relatively little damage and appeared to be largely intact. She was hoping that enough of it was intact to provide a good look at its inner workings.

A miniature probe unit was being slowly lowered into the Deathsaurer's core though one of the exposed sections. In turn, it was equipped with a number of different instruments and tools for taking measurements, recording information, retrieving samples and so on. Austin had interrupted her just before the probe was to be inserted.

Returning to the controls, she gently manoeuvred the probe via a pair of waldo gloves, watching its progress through a series of displays. A zoomed-in wireframe illustration of the Deathsaurer's torso revealed the relative position of the probe inside its body. Zooming in closer, she could see that it was indeed inside the core.

Number of the sensor status boards suddenly flashed green, indicating they were on-line. "Now," she muttered. "Let's see what we've got."

Various screens displayed different views of the core. X-Ray, magnetic, metallurgical, infrared, visual… all different reconstructions of what the probe was seeing. There was even an audio sensor to pick up any noise it may have been making.

She stared at the screens for a few minutes, taking in the information. The Deathsaurer's core was still apparently dead, but there was far more of it left to study then any of the others so far. Scanning the screens, she noticed something on the infrared. A very, very brief flash of light.

"What was that?" She asked herself. There it was again. There was something happening in there that had only just started. Fiddling with the controls, she increased the sensitivity on al the sensors, turning them all up to maximum. Whatever was happening in there, she wanted to know what it was.

There was a hiss of static from the audio pickup, followed by a crackling noise that coincided with one of the flashes of light. Flashes which were, she noticed, getting closer to each other. She counted down in her head for the next one. Hiss. Crackle. Flash. Then a loud noise that sounded like a gigantic heartbeat.

She staggered back, shocked. She'd been standing right next to the speakers all along. Watching the displays, she could see it happening again and again. A flash of light and then a heartbeat. Looking at the visuals, she could see core itself moving with each beat. Like a human heart, she thought. "My god." She said out loud. "It's alive."

"What's that?" Austin said. He'd been standing over her shoulder for the last few minutes watching.

"Colonel!" She said, somewhat surprised. "The, uh, Zoid, sir." She then hastily added. "It, ah, appears that it's well, alive for want of a better term."

"Fascinating." He replied. "Drs Blohm and Voss were telling me all about this creature." He continued. "They say that it was equipped with an incredibly powerful particle beam weapon. Imagine the power of that beast if it could be made to work."

"I…" She began. "I don't follow you, sir."

"I want you to rebuild it for me." He explained. "Bring it back to life."

-

On the other side of the continent, in a cave at the end of a networked of intertwined canyons, a creature stirred. For the moment, it was weak from a lack of food that had originally driven it to hibernation, but soon it would feed. Around it lay the remnants of its former companions, a quintet of large, winged, serpentine Zoids that it had turned on in order to feed itself.

Awakening form a centuries-long slumber, it stretched its wings and bellowed. It could sense something familiar in the air, a voice it had not heard since before its last great rest.

Soon, it would feed again.

-


	40. Contact

Port Aurora

Valeria, Drakken Empire

1450 hrs

Form the port outside the city, even the most casual observer could tell that all was not well in Valeria. A regional capital along the Drakken Empire's northern plains, it was an important administrative centre but far from any hostile border. As a result, it had something of a quiet and peaceful air to it. But not today.

Today the port was a centre of activity. Armed soldiers and Zoids were everywhere, taking up defensive positions around a group of Whale Sharks currently being loaded. Most of the Zoids were smaller types, however a pair of larger Zoids towered over them.

A solitary figure stood atop one of the whale sharks, watching the situation through a pair of binoculars. He was grey haired, with a beard and receding hairline. Unlike many of the other soldiers who were wearing their fatigues, he wore an elaborate brown dress uniform with a gold and red trim.

A second man climbed up next to him and saluted. He was shorter then his commander with a thin build and a somewhat oversized-looking head with a large forehead and short, limp blond hair. He was dressed in a similar uniform to his commander, but less elaborate. "Colonel Chrom?"

"Yes captain Quentin." He replied without taking his eyes of the binoculars.

"Major Giren reports that he's still holding the assembly building, but the government troops are advancing." He began. "He says that he needs reinforcements."

"Damn it." Chrom muttered. "What is Kandraks doing?"

"He is requesting permission to take Gorgon Battalion into the city and support Giren's forces." He replied. "He feels that this will be our last chance to hold the city."

"And what would you advise?" Chrom asked.

"I would advise sacrificing Kraken battalion to cover our escapes, Colonel." He replied. "They can probably occupy the Imperial forces for another half hour, which should give us ample time to depart."

"Very good." He replied. "Tell Giren to hold his position as long as possible and that reinforcements are on the way." Looking through the binoculars, he could see a number of shapes moving through the air from the city towards the port. "Prepare everyone else for departure."

"And Major Kandraks?"

"Tell him to embark his troops. And to select his most disposable pilots to perform sentry duty until they're needed."

"Yes sir." Quentin climbed back down into the ships hull.

"Damn it." Chrom muttered to himself. This had all started off so well. They'd taken Valeria by surprise. The assembly building, the port and numerous other vital administrative centres had fallen easily with little or no resistance. Then, next thing he knew, they were surrounded by imperial troops and were being driven back on all fronts.

Sacrificing Giren was a necessary evil in his mind. Chrom considered him to be secondary to the plan. He had two of the best pilots and commanders in the Imperial army on his side, as well as an excellent tactician. One over the hill officer was a worthwhile sacrifice to keep them all alive. He had few doubts about what would happen if they were caught. The government was rarely lenient on coup plotters.

The winged form of Major McShann's Radox filled the sky for an instant, before it settled down next to one of the Whale Sharks. No sooner had it landed then technicians began rearming the Zoid and preparing it for battle again. A dozen red and silver Rados, resembling miniature versions of her Zoid had touched down around it, and were now receiving similar attention.

Chrom's communicator bleeped. "Colonel, it's McShann here."

"What's the situation in the city?" he asked.

"Pretty grim." She replied. "The loyalists have the assembly building surrounded. I couldn't get a good first hand look, but Giren's Gordox looked to be damaged, and the rest of the unit weren't doing much better. As soon as we're ready, we'll head on out again."

"Negative, Major." Chrom replied. "We're pulling out. Medusa battalion is to provide escorts for the Whale Sharks."

"Yes colonel." She replied. "I take it then that Giren is on his own?"

"Affirmative."

"Well that's just too bad for him, isn't it?" She said. He could tell she was smiling. "We'll be ready to leave as soon as the ships are."

"Very good." Chrom replied then closed the link. Shaking his head, he climbed back down into the command centre on the ship. His own Gordox was already loaded aboard the ship, along with Quentin's Red Scavenger. He strode over to the bridge, leaning on the captain's shoulder. "Captain, what's our status?

"The ship's ready." The captain replied. "We can go as soon as you give the order."

"And the rest of the flotilla?"

The captain flipped through a number of displays. "All ready to go as soon as they're loaded." He replied. Looking around, he could see that there were still a number of Zoids on the field, including Kandrak's Gordox.

Damn it, what was he doing. "Patch me through to Major Kandraks." He began.

"Yes sir." The captain replied.

A few seconds later, an image of the Major came up on a viewscreen. "Major, what are you doing?" He began.

"I'm holding our ground." He replied. "If we can hold the port, then we may yet be able to retake the city."

"We've lost the city." Chrom replied. "Holding the port is irrelevant now. We're escaping."

"Major McShann's forces can cover me."

"Medusa Battalion is providing escort cover for the ships." Chrom snarled. "Now you can stay here and die heroically, or come with us and live to fight another day. We can still prevail, but not here and not now. Do I make myself understood?"

There was an angry silence from Kandrak. "Yes, sir." He finally muttered out.

"Good. Now get your Zoid loaded onto a ship. We still have plenty of space left."

Another screen popped up with McShann's face on it. Attractive, dark haired and with very deep blue eyes, she had a certain dangerous appeal to her. "Go on, Major. I'll protect you." She added with a smirk.

Chrom frowned. He didn't need infighting amongst his troops now. "You both have your orders. I suggest you carry them out."

"Yes sir!" They both replied, then closed their comm Links.

Looking across the field, he could see Kandraks' Gordox slowly backing into a Whale Shark. Good, he thought. I can still retrieve the majority of my forces. Maybe this can work out.

Suddenly, the control tower exploded into a ball of flames, grabbing his attention. Looking around, he tried to see what had caused it, then saw. A Dimetrodon, equipped with a heavy beam cannon, had broken through the defensive walls on the far side of the field. Next to it was a pair of Redhorns, with an Iron Kong towering over the pair of them. A trio of bird-like Storches flew overhead, strafing the Zoids remaining outside.

He turned to the captain. "Lift off now!" He shouted. "Order all the ships to finish loading and lift off immediately!"

"The control tower's out!" The captain shouted back. "We don't know if it's clear to take off yet. For all we know, there could be-"

"It's better then staying here on the ground." Chrom argued back.

"Yes sir." The captain muttered. "All hands, launch immediately!"

Turning away from the captain for the moment, Chrom activated his communicator. "Major Kandrak, what's your status?"

"My Zoid is loaded, sir. If you wish, I will disembark and-"

"No." He replied. "Tell the captain of your ship to launch. Major McShann will cover our retreat."

"Yes sir." He muttered, then closed the link.

Pressing a button, Chrom turned over to McShann. "We're leaving. I want Medusa Battalion to cover our departure. Keep the enemy off our tails for a while then retreat and regroup with us." The ship shook as it left the ground and began its ascent. "Do you understand?"

"Perfectly, sir." She replied.

"Good." He turned back to the bridge, watching the scene unfold around him. A mixed squad of Twinhorns, Molgas and Iguans had broken through his defences, and were wiping out the troops still remaining on the field. A flight of Rados swooped down on them, scattering missiles amongst their formation and damaging a few, before pulling away.

Around him, other ships were lifting off. He could see the one that Major Kandraks was onboard amongst them. Good. At least this whole affair wasn't a complete write-off. Watching the view from outside, he could see it moving as the ship turned towards its new heading. He could see Valeria in the distance, columns of smoke rising form across the city. That was behind him now, he thought. Now for the future.

-

Whale Shark Hydra

Dark Continent

2100 Hours

Outside it was pitch black and blowing a gale. A strong storm front was rolling in from across the Skillaz ice field, which meant things would only get worse. For the small fleet of Whale Sharks huddling in the valley, it was perfect. It meant they were almost invisible, and well hidden from their pursuers.

Magnus Chrom had called a meeting of his surviving command staff onboard his ship. Their defeat in Valeria had been a major blow to his plans. Now they could never return to the Empire that had been their home before. However, he had a plan.

He looked at his two subordinates. Lars Kandrak was a distinguished ace pilot whose career had been filled with nothing but victories and honours despite his young age. Chrom had promised him power in return for his support, a promise that was rapidly evaporating, He could tell that it would be hard to keep Kandrak on his side.

Gates McShann was the illegitimate daughter of a minor noble family who had been placed into state care. Like Lars, she'd distinguished herself as an excellent pilot and a commander. He also knew her to be greedy and manipulative, more interested in furthering her on aims than anyone else's. Yet, he needed her support as well. Clearly she would be interested in what he had to say.

And then there was Adrian Quentin. He came from an obscure province in the far east of the empire. Unlike the other two, he was only an average pilot. However, he was an excellent planner, tactician, analyst and scholar. In many ways, he was more important then the other two.

"As you all know, the takeover of Valeria was a failure." Chrom began. "However, this is not necessarily the end for us. From We still have managed to escape with more then fifty percent of our original forces intact. While it's less then I'd hoped for, it's still plenty. We have a substantial head-start on the Imperial forces, and they will be very hard pressed to find us in these conditions."

"That's all well and good." Kandrak began. "But where does that leave us? We can't go back. We can't try to take Valeria again, as they'll be ready for us. And we have only half our original forces." He crossed his arms. "I fail to see the good side of this situation, colonel." McShann remained quiet, probably studying the situation, trying to see how she could gain the most out of this.

"On the surface, things do look bad. I'll admit that much. However, there is something that the Empire isn't aware of that we can use to our advantage."

McShann raised an eyebrow. "Do go on." She began. "I'm fascinated to know."

Chrom nodded to Quentin, who walked over to the display table and pressed a few buttons. A map of the dark continent appeared, a flashing red dot indicating the fleet's position. "As you all know, the Dark Continent is largely uninhabited. While there are plenty of bandits, fringers and other undesirables, there is no permanent habitation here." He looked around. "However, information Colonel Chrom passed to me has revealed something interesting."

A second red dot flashed on the map, this time at the far western end of the continent. Effectively, it was the other side of the world form where they were. "This is a city." He began. "It is hidden inside an artificial mountain at the far end of the continent. This city was built during the earliest days of colonisation of the planet."

There was a long silence. "So..." Kandrak began. "So you're saying that there's been people living here all along?"

"No." Quentin replied. "The city is long abandoned, but it still stands. Its people took very little when they left it, however." He looked up. "The records that the Colonel passed to me indicated that these people possessed a weapon of great power. A weapon that they left behind when they abandoned the city."

Chrom looked at the pair of them. "Imagine it. A city full of ancient Super-technology that is ours for the taking. We would have weapons far in advance of what anyone in the Empire - or anyone else on the continent - possess. Power comparable to that wielded by the Starriors themselves."

There was a long silence as everyone took in what he said. "So when do we go?" McShann finally spoke up. "This sounds very interesting."

"Soon." He replied. "We wait here overnight while the storm shelters us from the Imperial forces. Tomorrow we will set out for this city." He looked around. "And let nothing stand in our way."

-

Whale Shark Hydra

Darklonia Plateau, Dark Continent

2100 Hours

Even by the standards of the Dark Continent, the Darklonia Plateau was particularly barren and remote. Nobody ever travelled there - it was at the very far end of the continent, about as far away from the rest of the world as you could get. Very few wild Zoids lived there. Most of those that did were Dark Zoids, Deadborders, Heldigunners and Dark Reddras. Surprisingly enough, they'd seen almost no wild Zoids so far, dark or otherwise.

The Hydra dipped below the cloud layer, allowing the crew to get a view of the landscape below them. The other whale sharks followed it, travelling like a school of gigantic fish. From his vantage point on the bridge, Chrom looked around the desolate landscape below him. In amongst the numerous peaks and valleys, one feature caught his eye. A large, flat-topped mesa with a long, jagged canyon in front of it.

He smiled. It was just as he'd imagined it. The journals passed through his family from the earliest days of colonisation had spoken of this place, but few had actually believed them to be anything other ten fanciful tales. But he had, and he had been right. Soon this city, and its secrets, will be mine, he thought. Soon.

"Captain, order all ships to put down on the near side of that mountain." He indicated towards a nearby peak. "Once we're down, we will proceed by Zoid to the city itself."

Within minutes a small heard of Zoids was on its way to the city itself. The two Gordox and the Red Scavenger dwarfed the numerous Spartaks, Kreeps, Brox and Legz around them, while Rados passed overhead, lead by McShann's Radox. Chrom confidently watched it all form his Zoid's cockpit. A part of him said he was being overly cautious. He'd hidden the Whale Sharks away to keep them safe form a possible attack, and was using his entire force to fend off anyone who may be occupying the city. But this was unnecessary. Mostly it was for show.

The procession of Zoids entered the canyon, slowly working their way down to the city itself. As they descended, he could see a massive pair of metal doors, set into the walls of the mesa. His was it, he thought. Just as I'd imagined it.

"Colonel!" McShann's shouting voice interrupted his thoughts. "Zoids, twelve O'clock high!" He glanced up to see a quintet of black and green shapes pass across the sky above them in a wedge formation.

"Dark Reddras." He replied. "Probably native wild Zoids."

As if to prove him wrong, the Reddras swooped around in formation and came back. The sleek, black Zoids positioned themselves in amongst Major McShann's flyers, one of them pulling level with her own cockpit.

"Colonel." She began. "There are pilots in them."

"What?" He replied. "There shouldn't be. There's nobody in this part of the world."

"Well, there are." She stated. "Right now, they're just looking at me. I think they may be as surprised to see us as we are to see them"

Before he could say anything in reply, the doors in the mountain swung open. A large group of Heldigunners, Darkhorns and Deadborders emerged, slowly advancing on them.

"It would appear, colonel." Quentin began. "That this city wasn't as uninhabited as I had thought."

-

There hadn't been time to call a full meeting of the governing council of the city. Instead, a handful of the most important decision makers in the city had gathered to decide what to do. There simply was no precedent in their history for the situation they now faced.

"People." Dr Claude Monroe, one of the top ranked scientists in the city muttered. "There are other people on this planet. Living, breathing real people. Amazing."

"That's fascinating." Colonel Michael Austin replied. "But they're also heavily armed people." He recognised a number of the zoid types as being similar to a number of the wrecked Zoids they'd found in the city; Gordos, Molga, Guysack and others. He didn't recognise the large, winged Zoid, and instantly didn't like the looks of it.

"They seem to be surprised that we're here." Laura Voguht, one of Austin's aides added. "They've halted their advance for the moment. I don't think they were expecting us any more then we were expecting them."

"Maybe they are descended form the original builders of the city." Monroe commented. "They abandoned it centuries ago, and then returned to reclaim it, not expecting anyone to be there."

"So what do we do about them?" Katrina Sjweski, one of the senior members of the council asked. She was one of the oldest people in the room, and one of the few who were adults when they first arrived on the planet nearly fifty years ago. She remembered the wars that had driven them here, and tended to err on the side of caution as a result. "Should we let them in?"

All eyes turned towards one figure. Antonio Garibaldi was the leader of the governing council. One of the oldest people in the city, he'd been the leader of the community for the last decade. "We let them in." He finally said. "We have been isolated here for nearly half a century. If there are indeed others on this world, then it is time we made contact with them. These people's arrival here is a fortunate one."

Austin nodded. "So we open the gates to them."

"Yes, Colonel." He replied. "I think it is time we introduced ourselves to the people of this world."

-

Chrom stared at the force of Dark Zoids standing in front of the city's gates. He'd been assessing their chances if it came to a fight. Not good. A Darkhorn or Deadborder was a match for a Gordox and would make quick work of most of his other ground troops. And these people, whoever they were, had larger numbers of the more powerful Zoids.

"Do we attack?" Kandrak snarled through the communicator. "I say we strike now and force our way through."

"No." He replied. "For now we watch."

"While we make ourselves into targets." Kandrak replied. "I really must question your leadership, Colonel." He emphasised the rank to indicate his displeasure.

"Colonel." Quentin spoke up, cutting Kandrak off. "Judging from their disposition and caution, I suspect that these people were not expecting us any more then we were expecting them."

"Interesting." Chrom said, stroking his beard. "This could be to our advantage."

There was a pause from Quentin before he replied. "Colonel, I'm getting a transmission, apparently from the city."

"Interesting." Chrom replied. "Put it through."

The screen blinked, then came to life. A man appeared. He was in his late fifties or early sixties, handsome for his age with a full head of steel-grey hair and blue eyes and a military bearing. "I apologise for keeping you waiting." He began in an oddly-accented voice. "On behalf of the people of Novo Zemalya, I bid you welcome to our city."

The Dark Zoids stood aside as the main doors to the city opened. "I suspect they're inviting us in." Quentin commented.

"Your analysis?"

"We have nothing to gain from staying out here. We can't fight them and we can't go back. My suggestion would be to accept their invitation."

Chrom nodded. "All units, we are going in. Form up on me and follow me in. Assume for the moment that the Dark zooids are friendlies."

"Colonel?" Kandrak asked. "Are you sure this is wise?"

He was still clearly itching for a fight, Chrom thought. "Yes, I am." He stated. "This way we can get inside the city without a fight, and get a chance to study these people. We may yet be able to use them to our advantage."

The column of Zoids advanced towards the city. On Chrom's orders, the Rados and McShann's Radox landed and marched along in formation with them. As the Dark Zoids stood aside, Chrom's unit entered the city.

As he looked around, he couldn't help but be impressed. The sheer enormity of the cavern was surprising, despite all that he'd read about it. He figured that the doors themselves were easily large enough to accommodate a Whale Shark or even one of the newly-developed Whale Kings, while this one road was wide enough to allow one to sail between the buildings.

The city itself seemed to be a little… out of place, he thought. The buildings were for the most part drab and functional, with a few concessions to decoration to make them seem less like each other. But their construction, he realised, didn't quite fit the scale and enormity of the cavern itself and its construction. They also seemed to be too new, in a way. As if they had been added in only recently to what was an already ancient structure.

He could see people by the side of the streets, as well as peering out form the windows of some of the buildings facing onto the main road. To him they looked like normal, average, everyday people. Nothing remarkable about them aside from the simple fact of where they were living. A few soldiers stood by the road, presumably for security. Compared to the heavily armoured and ornate uniforms worn by troops of the empire, these soldiers were almost casual looking. They wore light uniforms, no visible body armour and rather plain helmets.

"An observation, Colonel." Quentin began. "I believe these people haven o connection to the original inhabitants of this city. The construction of their buildings is very recent and somewhat rushed looking. Almost as if they were intended to be temporary but obtained some degree of permanency."

"Their troops are interesting too. They don't look like they see combat often, if at all. It could be that due to their isolation, they feel that they're protected form the outside world."

"That was my impression." Quentin replied. "Although I was observing some of their equipment. The battle rifle they carry is more bulky and apparently heavier and less advanced then the standard-issue rifles of the imperial army. Interestingly enough, I don't immediately recognise the model."

"The people look almost surprised to see us here."

"While I might put that down to the fact that due to their isolation, they don't have much contact with the outside world, I think there may be more to it then that." Quentin observed. "I think that we need to find out more about these people."

-

Assembly Building

Novo Zemalya, Dark Continent

50 PS

"I don't trust 'em." Austin muttered as he watched events on a monitor. The Zoids and troops, purportedly under the command of a Colonel Magnus Chrom, from something he called the Drakken empire, were being taken to the lower part of the city where their machines would be stored. Something about the whole situation didn't sit right with him. He'd gathered together a number of ranking military officers to discuss matters.

"Paranoia?" Captain Vought asked. Far younger then him, she was slim, graceful but also intelligent and, he'd noticed, somewhat ambitious. "It's to be expected, captain. After all, they're the first humans anyone's seen for fifty years."

And you've never seen anyone from outside here, he thought. Vought was in her early thirties, and had lived her whole life in the subterranean city.

"One must wonder what a group form this mighty 'Drakken Empire' was doing all the way out here." Major Yuri Porilikov commented. The highest-ranking officer in the ground forces, he had been born not too long after the city had been settled. Large, imposing and muscular, it had often been said that he somewhat resembled the Darkhorn he piloted.

"Maybe they got lost." Vought offered.

"Maybe they knew about this city." Austin replied. "The fact that they came to this incredibly remote valley in this very far corner of a remote part of the world is too much of a coincidence to pass up."

"Doctor Monroe said they could be decedents of the original builders of the city." Karl Arado, the commander of the city's internal security forces commented. "Maybe they've come back for something their ancestors left behind."

Austin and Prolikov eyed each other. Thirty-five years ago, Austin had initiated a project to rebuild a Deathsaurer found in the ruins of the city. While the Zoid itself had been rebuilt, all efforts to control it had filed. It violently rejected any pilot that tried to use it, even after it was modified to use a cybernetic neural link as a control system. "You don't think it could be…" Yuri began.

Austin rubbed the implants in back of his neck. "It's possible. They could want it." He replied. Both he and Yuri had been test pilots for the Deathsaurer, and both had been unsuccessful. He'd gotten some idea of its power form the feedback through the connection.

"So what do we do about it?" Arado asked.

"For the moment, we watch them." Austin replied. "Arado, I want you to increase security and make sure that our guests have escorts with them wherever they go."

"You don't think they could be dangerous, do you?" Vought asked.

"They could be. Or they could be a great opportunity for us all." Austin replied.

-

Magnus Chrom examined his Gordox, taking in every detail of its massive frame. A shadowy figure skulking near one of its rear legs momentarily caught his eye before he realised who it was. "Well?" he asked, turning momentarily away from the shadow. "How did it go?"

"Fascinating." Quentin replied as he slipped out of the shadows, throwing off they grey cloak he had around him. "I found that there's a lot more to this city and its people then I had initially suspected."

"Go on."

"To begin with, I'm certain that these people have no connection to the previous inhabitants of this city." He explained. "Form what I've gathered, their occupation of this city goes back only a few decades. Fifty years at most. Even then, it appears that they didn't so much find it as we did, as they accidentally stumbled across it."

"Interesting." Chrom replied, rubbing his chin. "Go on."

"Furthermore, I believe that your forefathers who first founded this city centuries ago may not have been its original builders."

Chrom was surprised to hear this. "Explain."

"I have discovered several examples of artefacts and technology that are, for want of a better word, alien. The most notable of these is the immense power core that is the heart of its city. Its construction and technology is like nothing I personally recognise, and it is clear that these people have only the most minimal knowledge of its functions."

"Do you think it could be a Starrior artefact?"

"That is my personal supposition. The device has several details in its design, however, that suggest that it may have some other use aside from as a power source."

"Go on."

"I'll need to test my theories, of course." He paused. "I'll present a full written report of my findings later."

"Of course." Chrom said. "Now what can you tell me about these people?"

"They are… unusual to say the least." He said. "From what I've gathered, they were somewhat surprised to see us. Not because they weren't expecting anyone to come this far out, but because they beloved that they were alone on this planet."

There was a pause. "They what?"

"Its difficult to believe, sir, but I'll explain my theory. For at least the last fifty years, nobody here has had any contact with anyone from outside the city. They have been here, alone and isolated, because the earnestly believed that they were alone on an uninhabited, hostile world, surrounded by dangerous native life forms. They have no method of long-range transport beside Zoid travel, and thus have never crossed the vast expanses of the Dark Continent to see if anything lay beyond."

"In other words, they assumed that since there was nobody else near them, there was nobody else to be found."

"Indeed."

"But you say they found the city, and they know how to operate Zoids. Surely both would indicate to them that there was an existing technological civilisation on this world."

"They found the city in ruins, sir." He replied. "More to the point, they found that it had been devastated by war. Maybe they presumed that the native populace had wiped each other out, leaving few if any survivors."

"It's a possibility." Chrom admitted. "But the big question is, where did they come from?"

"That is one I have been trying to figure out myself. I do have two theories, however."

"Explain."

"Firstly, there were a number of wars after the initial colonisation of this planet, resulting in vast devastation, including the creation of the area we today know as the wastelands. It is possible that these people fled one of these wars and believed that they were the only survivors."

"And they wandered the dark continent for centuries believing themselves to be alone." Chrom finished. "And the other?"

Quentin shuffled a little closer. "You must remember that there is a third continent on this world. Not as big as either the Shelflands or the Dark Continent, but at the same time, almost completely unknown to us. It is possible that they came from there, sir."

"Another continent, eh?" He said. "That would explain a lot. Their unusual accents, and strange inflections in the ways they speak, strange words they use… This could be most interesting." He looked over the Gordox's main cannons. "To my next question, Captain. Is our plan viable?"

"Yes sir." He replied. "Their security setup is very weak. They have minimal security on most vital areas, but nothing that could stand up to a well-planned assault or raid. Certainly they're not expecting anyone to attack." He paused. "Their Zoid forces outnumber ours and are better equipped, but at the same time they are disorganised and poorly trained. They are more of a volunteer militia then a true army.

"Good." He smiled.

"Actually, there is another thing that could be to our advantage, sir." He explained.

"What is it?"

"From what I've gathered, a number of their top military commanders have a degree of dissatisfaction with the current system of government, and have been moving to gain more direct control over the city. Specifically, their overall commander in chief of the armed forces is particularly agitated. While I've not approached him directly, I believe that he could be very receptive to a change in government here."

Chrom smiled. "Excellent. Let McShann and Kandrak know what is happening. I want to be ready to move as soon as possible."

"Yes sir." He replied, then melted back into the shadows.

Chrom turned back to his Zoid. This was too good a chance for him to pass up. He'd been thwarted once before, but this time it would be perfect. Not only would he have a new army, but he'd also have a new base of operations that was unknown to anyone else. Not to mention the tantalising thought of access to Starrior technology. "Perfect" he muttered.

-

Assembly Building

Novo Zemalya, Dark Continent

1145 Hours

Novo Zemalya was built inside a pair of massive artificial caverns. Most of the city itself was located in the upper cavern, while the lower, larger cavern was given over to important infrastructure. While the upper cavern held the bulk of the population, the lower one had the water recycling facilities, the hydroponics bays, the food vats, the heavy Industry, the Zoid bays and other such facilities. Likewise, the Assembly building was located in the lower cavern, in order to make it more secure from an attack.

Even then, much of the cavern was empty. Most of the land had been earmarked for expansion of the city in the advent that the population outgrew their current room. That wasn't going to happen in a hurry.

A black limousine, followed by several black armoured vans cruised along an access road leading towards the assembly building. Colonel Chrom and his counterpart form the Zemalyan forces, Colonel Austin, rode in its back. Chom wore his full dress uniform, complete with cap and his rarely-used sabre for the first time since he had entered the city. Austin, by comparison, was wearing a simple set of fatigues.

"Thank you again for this opportunity, Michael." Chrom began. "Your support has been most generous."

"I'm just glad I could help out." Michael replied, as he glanced out the tinted window. "Its not every day that we have visitors form outside the city." He smirked.

"Being able to see the assembly like this is just what I'd hoped for." Chrom stated.

"I'm sure they'll be interested in what you have to say." He replied as the limo pulled up.

Chrom opened the door. "Well, it's time. I'm sure you can look after things at your end."

"Don't worry about that." He said as the door closed. "Drive on." Austin instructed the driver. Looking behind him, he could see heavily armoured and armed troops spilling out of the vans, wearing the tan and red uniforms of Chrom's regiment. Austin sighed and pulled out a communicator. "Austin to all troops. We are go, repeat, go."

-

Chrom watched as the doors to the main assembly hall were kicked open and his troops poured into the room. After a few seconds of shouts (but no actual gunfire) he strode into the room. Austin had been good to his word, he thought. No resistance thus far. The city is ours.

He looked around the room at the members of the assembly. For the most part, they were cowering in their chairs, trying to look small or unnoticed. A quick glance showed that his troops were standing by every exit. Nobody left now unless he allowed them to.

He stepped up to the podium where a trooper was currently standing, securing the Speaker of the assembly. The man glared angrily at him, but said nothing. Chrom tapped the microphone twice to check that it was working, then spoke.

"I fell that I should introduce myself to you all first." He began. "I am colonel Marcus Chrom, of the Drakken Imperial Armed Forces. As of 1200 Hours," he checked his watch. "my regiment has complete control of this city. We have seized your armouries, your industries, your water supply, your exits from this underground world."

He paused for a moment as a murmur went around the hall. "As of this moment, you are all under house arrest. If you cooperate with us and remain calm, you will remain unharmed. If you try to escape, you will be killed. The same goes for everyone else in this city. My troops are currently amongst your people and will not hesitate to fire if provoked." By now, Major Kandraks would have his troops in the city proper, Major McShann would have her troops ready to hunt down anyone who tried to flee and his commandos would have seized control of all the most important elements of the city's infrastructure.

He paused to allow this to sink in.

"With your cooperation, this can make this as quick and painless as possible. Resist, and we will be forced to take drastic steps." He signalled to a soldier next to him who carried a flamethrower.

The trooper raised his weapon to the trio of flags that hung above the speaker's podium. Austin had informed him that these were amongst their oldest and most sacred relics, bought form their 'original home' (without specifying the details of where that was). They certainly looked like no other flag he'd ever seen. One blue with yellow stars, one red with a single yellow star and some other symbol invoking farming implements, and one with red and white stripes, decorated with a blue field and yellow stars.

"Burn them." He ordered.

-

"All clear here, sir." Sergeant Baque reported as he left the dark dank corridor, the rest of his squad behind him. "No sign of enemy activity." Ahead of him stood a single Spartak Zoid, its tan and red frame towering above the squad.

"Nothing over here either" Sergeant Ghoone reported as his squad entered. "Save for the smell. That's put up more of a fight then the enemy has."

The pair of them laughed. The city's sewerage treatment works, a vital part of their water recycling system that gave them an effectively unlimited water supply, had been virtually undefended. The first few guards had surrendered the instant they saw Corporal Jinn's Spartak. As soon as they were secured, the two commando squads had been sent in to the facility proper to scour for other troops. They found none.

"You can say that." Baque replied. "Jinn, you're real lucky to be in the Zoid and not out here. The pair of them laughed again.

Behind them the huge vat of open waste burbled and shifted. "What was that" Ghoon asked as he turned around, rifle in hand.

"Probably just crap settling." Baque replied.

"You getting anything on your sensors up there" Ghoone asked.

"Just methane." Jinn said. The three of them laughed. The Spartak's sensors were very ordinary and of only mediocre performance, but they would have easily picked up anything else in the room.

Two lumps emerged from the tank, the waste falling away to reveal sleek black forms. Gun platforms rose up form their backs, while sinister green eyes glowed through the muck. The two Zoids hissed at the attacking troops.

"I thought you said there wasn't anything here" Ghoone shouted.

"I did" Jinn replied, panicking. "The muck must have hidden them form my sensors"

The two Zoids opened fire before anyone could respond.

-

Chrom looked around the assembly. By now, his forces should have control of most of the city's infrastructure without any resistance. Now to act.

"Excuse me, sir." A comms officer jogged over to him. "Captain Guiaz for you." He handed him a communicator.

Chrom took the handset. Guiaz was one of his top officers, and had been assigned to taking the Zoid bays, their biggest single target and thus their biggest operation. "Chrom here." He began. 'What's happening there"

There was a brief burst of sound over the communicator. He realised that it was a rapid fire bam cannon being fired nearby. "It's bad, sir" Guiaz shouted. "The enemy were ready for us! There's Zoids and troops everywhere! Most of our Zoids are down and the few that are left" there was a loud explosion behind him. "They're not going to last too much longer."

"What do they have" he shouted.

"Lots of Dark Zoids, sir" Guiaz replied. "Supported by regular troops. We can't last too much longer"

Chrom flinched. "Fall back, Captain. Try to get as many men as possible to a Zoid elevator and get to the upper city."

"Yes s" he began, but the link suddenly dropped out.

"Captain" Chrom asked. Nothing. "Damn it." He handed the handset back to the comms technician. "Get me captain Zute now." Zute was in charge of the attack on the power core, their next most important operation after the bays and the assembly itself.

"Yes sir" The tech replied.

Quentin watched him for a few minutes. "Well" He snapped.

"Nothing, sir." He replied, nervously. "I can't reach Captain Zute or any of the other officers assigned to lead the attacks."

"Damn it" He swore. His attack on the Zoid bay had failed. All of his other commanders were unreachable, probably because they had also been taken out. They had been set up. "Get me captain Quentin now"

"Yes sir" The tech nervously replied, then pressed a few buttons on his comms unit. "I've got him for"

Chrom snatched the communicator away form the technician. "What's your status, Quentin"

"I'm at the main access elevator to the upper city, sir, along with the reserves from your battalion." He calmly replied.

"We've been compromised, Captain." Chrom replied. "Bring my Zoid to the Assembly now." He replied. "We're leaving."

"Yes sir." Quentin replied.

"I'll contact Kandrak and McShann and have them met us." He said. "Just get here."

"Yes sir." He said.

He pressed a couple of buttons on the communicator. "McShann, its Chrom. What's your status"

"Medusa battalion is holding over the city." She replied. "There's no sign of enemy action as yet."

"Good." He replied. "Keep on station for the moment. Let me know if the situation changes." Before she could reply he flipped a couple more buttons. "Kandrak, what's your status"

"We're in the city, Colonel." He replied. "There's no sign of enemy action, save for a few scared peasants."

So they've tied up their forces in the lower city. They'll be through with my troops quickly, however. We need a distraction. "Kandrak, I have a new assignment for you."

"Good." He replied. "I'm sick of sitting here."

Chrom had to smile. Kandraks may be a great pilot, but he was also easy to manipulate. "I want you to put the fear of Tomy himself into these people." He began. "Every building, every pedestrian, every car, every truck, every tree, every fruit stand... whatever it is, feel free to do whatever you like to it. I want devastation, Major."

He could tell that Kandrak was grinning. "Yes sir" he replied. "By the time I'm done, they will know fear."

Chromn closed the communicator and handed it to the tech. "Kill them all." He said. "I'll be out the front."

He strode out to the front of the building, arriving in the driveway just as Quentin's Red Scavenger crashed through the front gate, his Gordox on its trailers. "Good to see you, captain." Chrom said as he threw off his cap and jacket. "Is my Zoid ready"

"Yes sir." He replied. "The rest of your unit is waiting at the elevator. I took the liberty of deploying a few Kreeps and Brox around the area to tie up any hostiles that may be present."

"Good." Chrom replied as he walked over to the Gordox. "Right now, Major Kandraks will be causing trouble in the upper city. That should give their defenders something else to go after besides us."

"I may have located a second exit from the city" Quentin stated as he remote opened the Gordox's cockpit. "There's a pile of densely-packed rubble in the north-west of the city, right up against the wall. I haven't gotten a chance to test it more thoroughly, but there appears to be a tunnel behind it. I can't say whether it goes all the way out."

"We'll leave that as an option if we can't make the font gate." Kandrak said as he climbed into the Gordox's cockpit.

"I've also identified a maintenance shaft that could be used to evacuate some of your men. I'm relaying it to the surviving troopers."

Chrom seated himself in the Gordox's command couch. "I trust you've made a record of all htis"

"Indeed, sir." he replied. "I've downloaded copies of it into the computers of your Zoid, as well as Kandrak and McShann's."

"Excellent." He replied as the Gordox stepped off the platforms. "I suggest that we split up our forces to make them harder to intercept and destroy, then meet again at the font gate."

-

Austin glanced around his mobile command centre, stealing glimpses at the various monitors. So far everything had gone well. Soon he'd know the results of his little gamble. As he watched, captain Vought walked up to him. "Excuse me, colonel." She began. "But I have the latest status report form our forces."

"Go on." He said, turning his eyes from the monitor.

"As expected, Chrom launched strikes against all the targets we identified." She began. "All of those strikes have been neutralized."

"Casualties?" He asked.

"A few amongst city security forces. Our own troops have escaped unscathed."

"Good." He said. "And them?"

"We're still tallying numbers at this stage." She began, reading off the report. "At this stage we can confirm that all the Zoids he deployed in his strikes have been destroyed. His commandos and infantry are harder to track down, but we're estimating eighty percent casualties amongst them at this stage."

"And the rest of their forces?"

"Chrom's remaining troops are currently split into four major groups." She began. "Chrom himself, along with the bulk of his remaining commandos and infantry is at the assembly building, with a few light Zoids controlling the area. Quentin has seized one of the Zoid elevators and is apparently holding it with the bulk of what's left of Chrom's battalion. Major Kandrak's battalion has seized several points in the city proper, mainly to restrict troop movements. And Major McShann's battalion is holding outside the city."

"Good." He said. "Launch the counterattack. Take out McShann and Kandrak first. Quentin and Chrom aren't going anywhere as yet, and we can easily contain them."

"Yes sir." She said, and turned to leave. Before she could, however, a female tech stood.

"Colonel Austin!" She shouted. "Reports are coming in from the city! Kandrak's men- they're opening fire on civilians, sir!"

"What?" He shouted. This wasn't meant to happen, he thought. It was meant to be a clean, bloodless coup. "Give me reports." He glared at her. "Now, damn it!"

"Y-yes sir." She said, returning to her seat. "Northwest industrial district has come under heavy attack. Several factories, including a munitions plant are ablaze." A sector of the city on an overhead map illuminated in red to indicate the attack."

"South-central residential district has also come under attack." A male technician added. "Local security tried to contain the fighting but have been unable to do so." Lightly armed foot soldiers versus Zoids. A one sided battle. "Fighting has spilled over to the South-central commercial district." Another two sectors illuminated.

"The enemy have seized Landing Park and are advancing into the north-eastern residential sector." A third technician added as another sector of the map illuminated. "Sir, that's one-"

"I know." He muttered. One of the most densely populated areas of the city. Damn, Chrom had surprised him, he thought. He hadn't expected the man to be this bloody. "Order our ground forces into the city. They are to locate and eliminate any enemy troops they find."

"Yes sir." Vought replied.

"Tell them that they are to go all out to destroy the enemy. We cannot allow any of them to escape after what they've done." He added. "And I want McShann taken out as soon as possible."

-

"What in the world is going on down there?" McShann asked herself as her Zoid circled over the city. "Chrom should have reported in by now." It had been too quiet. A quarter of an hour ago, Chrom had given her instructions to remain on station until he gave further notice. And he had been doing such from his Zoid's cockpit, a venue that he shouldn't have needed to use if all had gone to plan.

"Major, what's the situation?" Captain Zuno, her second in command asked. "Are we to remain here all day?"

"Good question." She asked herself. She flicked her communicator a few times. Nothing. Chrom was either running silent to evade detection, or was unable to reply. "Captain Zuno."

"Yes, Major?" He asked.

"I want you to return to the city immediately. Locate and establish contact with Colonel Chrom or, failing that, Captain Quentin or even Major Kandraks. I want to know what's happening down there."

"Yes captain." He replied. The silver and red Rado peeled away from the rest of the formation and descended towards the city below. She watched as it dived, when something else caught her eye.

Black shapes, rising from the city. Small and fast moving one two. "Dark Reddras." She muttered. They weren't meant to be deployed, she thought. So why are they here?

As she watched, one of the black shapes broke away form formation. Accelerating, it climbed straight at captain Zuno's Zoid. As she watched, the Reddra streaked towards it, twisting in flight. Turning towards the Rado, the black Zoid seemed to be on a collision course. At the last second, however it passed straight by the Rado. The silver and red Zoid wobbled in the air for a moment, then slowly its right wing detached.

"They're hostile!" She shouted. "Take evasive action immediately!"

The Reddras flew straight into her squadron, slashing several of the Rados on their first pass. As the damaged Zoids fell away, their attackers turned in flight for another pass. Looking around, she could see more of them emerging form the city.

"Open fire immediately!" She shouted as she thumbed the trigger for the Radox's two long-range missiles. While the Reddras lacked ranged weapons, they could easily outrun, out-climb and out manoeuvre a Rado, and their cutting blades and claws could make short work of any that they caught.

A black and green shape passed close to her cockpit. Twisting the massive Radox around in the sky, she opened fire on it with the secondary guns mounted on the belly. Twin streams of fire chased the Zoid as it climbed away, trying to avoid destruction. "Damn you!" She shouted as she thumbed the trigger again. Several shots struck the Reddra, causing an eruption of black smoke and flames from its tail and wing. The black Zoid desperately twisted in the air, the pilot fighting to keep it airborne and out of her fire.

Her victory was short-lived, however. Another shape passed over her, accompanied by an ear-splitting metal screech. The Radox suddenly lurched to the right, the fire from the cannons spraying away form her victim. Glancing back, she could see several of the spars on the right wing had been cut. Behind her she could see another Reddra decapitating one of the Rados in a quick pass.

Struggling with the controls, she desperately veered to avoid a second one as it passed. The Black Zoid missed with its wings, but instead sliced through the edge of her left wing with its tail blade. Another one sliced across the tail of her Zoid, sending it spiralling. The Radox bellowed in pain and dived towards the earth.

Desperately yanking back on the stick, she wrestled the Radox's nose up. Looking around, she could see that her struggle was not going unnoticed. A trio of Reddras passed overhead, cutting into the wings and body of her Zoid, causing it to screech out in pain. Grabbing the stick to try to keep the Zoid under control, she wasn't ready for the two that made passes form behind, ripping up the already damaged wings.

The Radox plummeted towards the earth. Gates could tell that the Zoid was doomed. With the damage to the wings, there was no way she could bring it under control now. She reached for the ejection lever, only to be thrown back as another Zoid cut into the Radox's neck.

"What are they doing?" She shouted as another one took away half of right wing. Then she realised. "They don't want me defeated. They want me dead. I won't let them!"

Clenching her teeth, gripping the stick with all her strength and thinking with all her will, she forced the dying Zoid back into a climb. "If you want me-" She began. "Then take me! I am Gates McShann, the greatest ace of the Imperial forces! I will not be defeated by the likes of you!"

A face appeared on the communications screen. She didn't recongise the pilot, but she could guess who they were. It was an enemy pilot, a young woman, clad in a grey and red uniform, attractive, but not outstandingly such. One thing did catch her attention, however. It was the woman's eyes.

They were bright green, a colour not normally found amongst humans. The same colour green as the sensor eyes of the Reddra. The woman laughed, a deep, insane cackle. "For what you have done…" she began, a sinister sneer spreading across her face. "We will kill you. Many, many times."

As one, the Reddras turned to her Zoid, and descended to strike.

-

Quentin ignored the destruction around him as he pushed the Red Scavenger's throttle open and sped through the burning city, a trio of escort Zoids with him. Chrom's plan had been a brutal one, but effective. Kandraks opened fire on the city. The defenders would be forced to draw troops away from his forces to protect the civilians and stop Kandrak. Chrom could make an end run for the gate and escape, presumably with the assistance of major McShann who was already outside.

It required the sacrifice of many civilian lives, and probably would also cost him Major Kandraks and most of his remaining troops. It was a fair price to pay, however, for his own survival. Besides, Quentin had always seen Kandrak as a muscle-bound, aggressive fool who had nothing better to do but fight.

Kandrak was suited for a task like this, he thought. It gave him an opportunity to vent his destructive tendencies on a target that couldn't fight back. It also made him the primary target for any retaliation from the defenders. The perfect distraction.

As if to interrupt his train of thoughts, a burst of fire erupted from a cross street to his left as the Zoids passed. The shells tore into the hull of the Brox on his right flank, sending the smaller Zoid crashing to the ground.

Looking over his shoulder, Chrom spotted the source of the attack. A Darkhorn Zoid galloped along a parallel street, keeping pace with his convoy. Behind him the Brox staggered to its feet, trying, and failing to keep up.

"All units." He began. "Stay close to me. Do not break off to engage the enemy." That way they can act as shields and draw the enemy's fire, he thought. The four remaining machines continued through the city, the damaged Brox struggling to keep up with them. He's expendable, Quentin thought. But he may yet be useful as a distraction.

A stream of autocannon fire burst out from the right, tearing up the pavement before finding their mark in the Stang on his flank. The small Zoid simply crumpled into a twisted pile of limbs. Glancing to his side, he could see the source of the attack. A second Darkhorn had come up on their other flank and was keeping pace with him as well.

He pushed the Zoid's throttle all the way open, leaving the crippled Brox and the disabled Stang behind. "Corporal LaGowe. Move ahead of the formation and scout for the enemy."

"But sir-" The pilot protested, but was cut off.

"Do it." He said, sharply.

"Like hell I will!" He replied. The small Legz broke into a scurrying high-speed run, darting off down the street before breaking off and ducking into a side-street. As Quentin watched, the small Zoid suddenly darted back onto the main street, running back at him. A volley of fire lifted the small Zoid up and threw it to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

As Quentin watched, the lumbering form of a Darkhorn emerged from the side street. The heavily armoured Zoid turned to face him, then advanced, deliberately crushing the wrecked Legz underfoot. The Zoid slowly advanced, its sensor eyes glowing in the darkness of the burning city. Quentin was a realist. While he knew the Red Scavenger's armour was incredibly dense, he also knew that he was unarmed, and that he had a very poor chance of wining a collision with a Darkhorn.

He started to back the Zoid up, but was cut off as another Darkhorn emerged behind him. The second Zoid was joined by a third, which approached form a different street. He didn't see what had happened to the Brox but he had a very good idea.

The three Zoids turned their main cannon assemblies towards the Red Scavenger. "I somehow doubt that surrender is an option." He broadcast over the speakers. "However, my Zoid is unarmed, as am I. I also have a lot of useful information about the outside world." The only reply was a guttural growl form one of the Darkhorns. Quentin couldn't tell if it was the Zoid or the pilot itself.

The three Darkhorns opened fire at once, pumping round after round into the immobile Red Scavenger. They continued to fire well after it, and its pilot, were dead.

-

Chrom's Gordox lumbered towards the main gate of the city, a small contingent of bodyguard Zoids with him. Looking ahead, he could see the massive pair of doors looming over him, with a number of smaller Zoids standing by them. Much to his relief, he could see that they were Spartaks – his Zoids, and that the doors were somewhat ajar. Between his bodyguard units and the attack team he'd sent to the gate, this would be the largest single concentration of his troops in the city.

He opened a link to the commander of the assault team. "What's our status, Dinn?"

"We're holding the gates and the control centre, sir." Lieutenant Dinn replied. "So far we've had no contact with the enemy. The outside perimeter is also secure and the Whale Sharks are ready to leave as soon as we get there."

"Any word form captain Quentin or major Kandrak?"

"None as yet, sir." He replied. "Quentin informed us that he was en-route, but we haven't heard anything since then."

Damn it, he thought. I need Quentin right now. "Very well." He said, trying to remain calm. "We'll make a break for the Whale Sharks. Major McShann's force will cover us in case of pursuit from the city."

"Yes sir." He replied.

"I will move out first with my escort group. I want your squad to remain here until I call for you or Major Qunetin arrives, is that understood?"

"Yes sir." Dinn replied. "And what about Major Kandrak?"

He paused for a second. "If Kandrak hasn't arrived before you leave, destroy the equipment and leave the gates locked in place. I'm sure he can make it out on his own." But he's far more use to me right here, he mentally added.

A loud bleeping noise form his Zoid's command console caught his attention before Dinn could reply. Checking his scope, he could make out numerous targets moving in from the city. His systems couldn't identify any of them, but he had a pretty good idea of who they were and what their intention was.

He pushed the Gordox's throttle to maximum. The lumbering Zoid picked up speed, breaking into a run for the door. "Men, we're surrounded! Cover me, now! Go, go go!"

All around him, the city erupted into battle. Dark Zoids emerged form the shadows and opened fire on his troops, staggering them with their superior weaponry. His men tried to return fire, but it was clear that it was quickly becoming a one-sided battle.

Chrom didn't care what happened to his men now. One he made it outside, he knew he'd be free. His Zoid stormed past a Spartak, just as a Heldingunner literally leapt on it, digging its armoured claws into the smaller Zoid's body and sending it crashing to the ground. A Deadborder snapped at another Zoid, crushing its head between its armoured jaws. The larger Zoid shook the Spartak's body, before throwing it aside.

The Gordox shook as rounds from a Darkhorn's cannon slammed into its side. Checking his monitors, he could see the attacker, charging through a mess of combat straight at his flank. Swinging the Gordox's massive tail around, he literally swatted it aside. The Darkhorn staggered back, deep rents in its side, before crashing to the ground.

Ignoring everything else around him, he pushed the Zoid forwards. The doors loomed up in front of him, the light spilling in form the outside almost blinding in its radiance. Around him, his men fought and died while he charged towards his freedom. The Gordox plunged between the massive metal doors, before staggering out into the light.

Chrom stopped for a moment and looked around. He was outside. He had escaped from the city. His freedom was almost within his grasp. He horridly pressed a few buttons on the control panel. "Major McShann, this is Chrom. I'm outside the city I'm requesting immediate air support."

There was no reply. He paused, then activated the comms panel again. "Major McSahnn, come in please."

Again, there was nothing. He frantically looked around for any sign of her squad or the enemy. Then something caught his eye. It was the wreckage of a red and silver Rado, lying crumpled and torn on the ground nearby. It had only fallen there recently, he figured.

Looking up, he could see sleek black shapes circling in the skies above him. Reddras, he thought. Dark Reddras. And no sign of McShann's forces and…

The doors surged open as his troops rushed through. Spartaks, Brox, Kreeps and Stangs poured out, all practically tripping over each other to escape. Trying to remain calm, Chrom pushed his Gordox's throttle open to keep out of the way of the tide of advancing Zoids. "Hold your ground, men!" He shouted across the PA system. "Don't let them get past you! Your freedom is almost within your grasp!"

My freedom, he mentally added. As the Gordox lumbered away, the doors opened further. Deadborders, Darkhorns and Heldigunners emerged from the city, bearing down on the helpless smaller Zoids. Cannon fire raked their ranks, felling many of their numbers as they tried, desperately, to fight back.

Chrom didn't care whether they lived or died, only how much time they bought him. His Gordox lumbered away from the battle, Chrom keeping one eye on the path ahead of him while the other was watching events unfolding behind him. It was clear that his men couldn't last. It was simply a question of how far he could get first.

A loud cracking sound caused him to stop for a moment. He checked his Zoid's status board, but could see that most of the systems were functional. Certainly there was nothing that would have caused that. Shrugging it off, he continued, only to hear it again. Looking around, he saw the source of the noise.

His Zoid was standing in the middle of a field of loose slate. Or, as he noticed, recently disturbed loose slate. The Gordox gave a low roar and started backing off. "Forward!" He shouted, pushing on the throttle. "Listen to me, you stupid machine!"

Suddenly, the ground in front of him erupted as the sleek, heavily armed form of a Heldigunner emerged. A second one emerged next to it, with a third on his other side. As he looked around the cockpit, he could see more of then emerging from the rubble.

"Go ahead!" he shouted. "Do your worst! You won't take me alive!" The Gordox bellowed as the black Zoids closed in. Then, as one, they leaped on the Gordox, burying it under a mass of writhing metallic bodies.

-

Lars Kandrak sat back in his Zoid's cockpit, looking out at the burning city around him. Flames leaped from buildings, billowing black smoke into the sky. The enclosed city meant that the air was thick with dark black clouds, blotting out the light from the roof-mounted lamps and creating a dark, hellish atmosphere.

The air around him was filled with the sounds of battle. Zoids stomped past, weapons fired, missiles flew, explosions tore through the air and people died. His comms system echoed with the sounds of men fighting and dying. The few survivors of his unit were gathered around his Zoid, like remoras clinging to a shark. A few more brave souls had gone ahead to scout the way, the route that would hopefully lead to freedom.

Stepping around a burning building, he sighted something in the middle of a crossroads. It was the armoured form of a Red Scavenger, sitting motionless in the middle of the street. Zooming in on its shell, he knew why it wasn't moving. The whole Zoid had been riddled with fire from all sides. Whoever had destroyed it had gone way beyond what they needed to do, he grimly thought. He couldn't see the Zoid's cockpit to ascertain if the pilot had survived, but he suspected he didn't need to.

"Major! I think we've found it" A vid-window popped up on his screen. The pilot was Tanya Zell, one of the, one of a few women in his unit. He liked her. She was young, enthusiastic and very readily followed orders.

"Very good, pilot." He replied. "Hold your position. I'll be there soon."

"Yes sir."

His troops moved through the brining city. In the background, the sounds of fighting continue, but began to fade. Either they were getting further and further away from the battle or the fighting was dying down. He grimly considered the options. Hopefully it was the former. He had no doubts who the eventual victor in this battle would be. He just hoped the rest of his troops would last long enough for him to get away.

The massive rock walls loomed ahead of him. A pair of Kreeps waited by a large pile of boulders that jutted out from it. "This appears to be it, sir." The Zell reported. "We looked all along the wall and it was the only thing we could find that wasn't a sheer cliff face."

"Well done." He replied. "Men, I need you to shift these boulders immediately. If we are to make good our escape, we have to get out of here. You two Kreeps will keep watch with me."

"Yes sir" came the chorus of replies from his soldiers. A group of Stangs and Spartaks moved out from around his Zoid and began moving the boulders with their claws and vice hands. The going was slow, the pile of boulders considerable. After what seemed like an eternity, they had opened a small hole in one side that lead onto a dark tunnel. Small enough for a Kreep to go through. One of the Stangs peered behind the pile.

"Sir! It looks like there's a tunnel around here"

He smiled. That useless supply captain's information was correct. They did have a way out of here. He thought of the riddled Red Scavenger he'd passed earlier. At least Quentin had been good for something. He was utterly worthless as a warrior and, given the way things had gone, his intelligence had been far from perfect. "Good work men. Zell"

"Yes sir"

"I want you to drive down the tunnel and tell me what you find."

"Yes sir" The Kreep crawled off into the tunnel. About a minute later, it emerged.

"Well" He asked.

"I'd say its about a hundred meters long and eighteen meters high, sir." She said. "The far end is blocked with another loose pile of boulders."

"Excellent" He replied. "Keep working, men! This is our chance for freedom."

After a while enough of the rubble was cleared to allow all the Zoids to enter. The Spartaks and Stangs entered first, to begin work on clearing the other end, Soon they'd cleared a passage to allow the smaller Stangs to crawl out the far end. With work that tunnel grew larger, until he could maneuver his lumbering Zoid through the passage. He blinked as he saw daylight for the first time in days. While it was still a dull red, angry looking sky, it was the real world outside.

"We're free" One of the Spartak pilots shouted.

"Not yet, soldier." He replied. "Stangs, Spartaks, you have new orders. Return to the tunnel. Restack the rubble so they don't know where we are. If they find this escape route, they will know where we have gone. Once you have restacked as much as you can, use your guns to seal the rest."

"Yes sir" The Zoids vanished into the tunnel.

"Zell, you are to scout ahead. Find us a safe path to the Whale Sharks and report back. Tell me if you find any of the others. And keep an eye put for enemy forces, especially the Reddras."

"Yes sir" The Kreep sped off.

He looked down into the valley below. There were plenty of destroyed Zoids littering the landscape. All of them, he reflected grimly, were Stangs, Spartaks and Kreeps. Damn. Couldn't they have at least taken out a few of the enemy with them? He still didn't know much about these dark Zoid pilots, but he had to admire the way they fought. Unfortunately, he hadn't gotten the chance to fight one of them yet. Now, he realized, he would be lucky if he didn't.

"Fire in the hole" The shout came from a trooper in the tunnel. A gaggle of Zoids fled from the tunnel, followed by the sound of an explosion and smoke and rock dust. "Sir, the tunnel is sealed" One of them enthusiastically reported.

"Very good work, Cuge." He replied. "Now stand clear." He turned his Zoid's massive guns on the roof of the exit. Rick crashed down, half burying it. "Now cover the rest up as soon as possible."

"Major" Zell's face filled up his screen. "I found the colonel... I think."

"Show me" he replied.

"Yes, Major." She said. Another image appeared on his screen. It was gruesome, to say the least. It looked like a Gordox, or at least, a vaguely Gordox-coloured lump. It lay in the middle of a field of broken shale, literally torn to pieces. The head, half the spines, the guns, even one of the legs looked like they had been torn off. Not shot, he reflected grimly, but torn. There was debris scattered everywhere around it, but precious little sign of the cockpit.

"Right. All men, move out" He gave the order. He didn't care that they hadn't found the Whale Sharks as yet. He just wanted to be away from here.

-

Out of all the troops that Colonel Magnus Chrom bought with him to the Dark Continent, less then a quarter of them survived. Most of them were from Major Kandrak's battalion, but there were a few Rados that escaped the destruction of Major McShann's squadron.

Kandrak split the surviving troops amongst the Whale Sharks, then sent them off in different directions to make pursuit even harder. Most of them would reach the Wastelands, where they went to ground. Some of them, however, met different fates.

Two of the Whale Sharks put down in the Vinterlands, where they were involved in a battle with the local military. Most of the pilots escaped, but two were captured. When questioned, they explained what unit they came from, their commanding officer and where they had been, but nobody believed their story. The two were later extradited to the Empire where they were executed for treason.

Another two Whale Sharks simply vanished over the Dark Continent, over a canyon network in the south-western region. No trace of either ship was ever found, beyond a brief burst of an SOS, indicating that they were under attack. Who or what by was never identified.

-

Assembly Building

Novo Zemalya, Dark Continent

50 PS

Magnus Chrom's attempted coup had been devastating. The upper city, the population's living space, was in ruins. Thousands were dead or injured. While much of their important infrastructure had survived, treating the injured and rebuilding the city was going to take a long time.

Almost all of the governing council were dead, executed by Chrom during his retreat from the city. A small group of military officers and scientific advisers had been placed in charge of the city until things could be sorted out and some semblance of normality could be reached. Many people gloomily predicted that this could take a long time.

Michael Austin looked around the meeting room and the gathered officials. Besides his military command staff, the room also contained numerous technical and scientific advisers. These people were the ones who were running the city, or at least were until civilian government could be established.

"I've called you all here today for a reason." He began. "For the time being, we have absolute power over this city and its people. However, the time may come when we have to relinquish control. I put it to you, then. How can we prevent this from happening?"

"Duration of the crisis." Ian Hawker, an intelligence analyst began. A tall, slim man, he had a prominent nose and stretched features. "I suppose the best thing to do would be to extend the crisis."

"How so?" Austin asked.

"As yet, we're still to account for all of Kandrak's unit, including the major himself." He said. "It would be fair to say that he poses a significant security risk to our city. The information we recovered from the wreckage of several of the Zoids included a rather complete Journal of the events that transpired while they were in this city, including our location. Anyone who gained a copy of that journal would be able to locate us."

"So we should prepare for an immanent invasion?" Arado asked.

"At least for the possibility." Hawker replied. "Of course, such a threat hanging over us would give us the grounds to keep the military in control of the city, at least in the short term."

Austin considered this. "Have we been able to find out more about the outside world?" Up until recently, everybody here believed that they were alone on this planet. Now it had become clear that there were millions, possibly even billions of other humans on the planet.

"A bit." Hawker replied. "Interrogations of the few surviving members of Chrom's unit, as well as Captain Quentin's own journal have indicated the existence of two large, expansionist superpowers and a number of smaller nations. Both could be considered hostile."

"We could play up the threat of these nations." Vought suggested. "Spread around the idea that should either of them find us, they would likely want to force us to join them."

"That's good." Austin replied. "We take the paranoid stance and assume that everyone's out to get us and impose harsh measures as a way of protecting ourselves." He looked around.

"We can use the devastation of the city as an example of what could happen." Grant Douglas, one of the few surviving civilian members of the council spoke up. One of Austin's supporters, he'd been conveniently ill on the morning of the coup.

"On that topic, what are we proposing to do about the city?" Austin asked.

"I was actually going to suggest moving the population into the lower caverns." Douglas replied. "There are a number of advantages. The most obvious one is that we can use the upper city as a kind of buffer zone against any further invasions. Anyone who invaded us using Quentin's journal as their guide would be at a disadvantage. Our population would be secure in the caverns below while we would be free to combat our attackers both outside and in the upper city."

"It's a good idea." Arado commented. "It would make internal security a lot easier."

"Building a new city would be a substantial investment of resources." Lisa Glouster, another member of the civilian council argued.

"No more so then rebuilding the original city." Douglas said. "And that's before you consider all the other benefits."

"How so?" She asked.

"The larger size of the lower cavern means that we can plan for a far larger population." He explained. "Further more, I was going to propose that we abandon the open-plan style of city that we used in the old city in favour of Arcology-style blocks. It would potentially give us a much higher possible population density."

"Is this possible?" Austin asked.

"By the time our ancestors left our home, it was the standard of city construction across most of the planet." He replied. "At current rates of growth, and with reasonably efficient design and construction, I estimate that it could be at least two centuries before we run out of room in the lower caverns."

"Good." Austin replied. "That brings us to the next point, which is expanding our military capabilities." He looked around. "Our performance in the battle against Chrom's forces highlighted a number of areas where I feel that we have room to improve." He looked over at Vought. "Captain?"

Vought opened a file up. "At present, our military is more of a volunteer defence force. It was formed initially as a simple way to protect us from the possibility of attacks by wild Zoids. Fighting other humans never entered into things. While our troops were successful against Chrom's forces, it was largely due to the superior capabilities of our Zoids more the anything else."

"So what do you suggest?" Porilikov asked. He'd been sitting at the back, largely taking in the discussions without speaking. Now it was in his area of expertise.

"The first thing is a dramatic expansion of our military." Vought replied. "At present, we have more Zoids then we have qualified pilots, and that's just counting our reserves. While we have no capacity to manufacture the machines ourselves, there are still plenty of wild Zoids that we could use."

"How do you suggest we expand the military?" Hawker asked. "Compulsory service?"

"Our first plan would be to do a large scale recruiting drive. We could run with images of the devastation wrought by Chrom's forces and do a 'don't let this happen again' angle on it. That's sure to pull in a few."

"But is it sustainable? Will we be able to keep up constant numbers?"

"Probably not." She replied. "However, Dr Curtis had some ideas regarding that. Doctor?"

She turned to face a plain-looking middle-aged man with short black hair. He nodded to her and stood. "I've been looking into a number of ways we could enhance the capabilities of our forces based on the reports from the battles and what we discovered form examining Chrom's Zoids."

"Such as?" Austin asked.

"The first thing is the interface method used by our pilots. We use an implanted cybernetic control system to allow our pilots to directly interface with the Zoid's AI systems. Chrom's troops, and I'd presume the imperial army in general, use a helmet equipped with a series of receptors and transmitters that effectively does the same thing, albeit less invasively"

"So how do the two systems compare?" Austin asked.

"The cybernetic control system creates a more efficient link that allows for a better flow of information in both directions. However, it does appear that there is some potential for feedback through the link to the pilot."

"Does it pose any physical threat to the pilot's health?" He asked.

"No." Curtis replied."

"Good." Austin commented. "In that case, I'd say that we stick with the cybernetic system for the moment."

"There are some other ideas I had for expanding both the size and the capability of our defence forces, Colonel." Curtis continued.

"Go on." He replied.

"There are two things, but they are both interrelated." He said. "The first would be an extension of the crèche system we currently use for child-rearing and schooling." Austin nodded. The crèche system had been set up after the initial colonisation of the city in order to free up labour. Initially seen as a temporary measure, it had continued nonetheless. "At present everyone undergoes aptitude tests to determine the career they would be best suited to. What I propose is to extend that program."

"I'm proposing that we identify those suited to being Zoid pilots at an earlier stage, no later then twelve or thirteen. From there, they would effectively be drafted into the military. We would train, feed and house them. In return, we get a number of years of compulsory military service. After that time, they are free to return to the workforce, albeit with a number of perks as reward for their services. Of course, the could choose to stay with the military."

"Which would be controlling the city." Austin finished. "Thus they would have an incentive to stay with the military; it would be the opportunity to stay on path for the real power in the city." He nodded. "Good work."

"Can I ask why so young?" Gloster spoke up.

"That brings me to my second point." Curtis continued. "I've been doing research into pre-colonisation technologies, specifically genetic engineering. I believe it is possible to genetically modify or upgrade, if you wish, our pilots to enhance their capabilities." He paused for a minute to let this sink in. "The net result is that they would be stronger, faster, more agile and generally more capable. The only drawback is that the program of upgrades would have to be begun before they reach full maturity."

There was a long pause. "So, in other words, our pilots would be better then any others." Austin finally spoke up.

"That is correct." He replied. "Additionally, they would be more experienced by the time they reach actual military service due to a far longer dedicated training regime. I estimate that in any large scale conflict between our forces and any invader, we would certainly have a numerical inferiority. However, with better pilot quality, we could somewhat reduce such an imbalance."

"How about our Zoids?" Prolikov asked. "Can we improve them?"

"We are currently researching ways to upgrade our existing Zoids." Vought replied. "Unfortunately, at this stage we still know relatively little about the way they work. Most of the details of their power source still eludes us, as does the exact make up of their techno-organic core." She paused before continuing. "That being said, it's probably a relatively simple matter to add additional weapons to our Zoids. The Darkhorn, for example, carries numerous external equipment hardpoints."

"As long as we can add some weapons to our Reddlers, it would be a good start." Prolikov commented, leaning back on his chair.

"We're still analysing the information we gained from Chrom's forces, but we have learned a lot about the capabilities of our Zoids relative to others." Vought continued. "We can say, however, that the Darkhorn, Deadborder and Heldigunner are all considered to be very well armed for their size. However, all three are of only average to poor speed and mobility."

"That should suffice, however." Austin continued. "It's likely that most battles we fight are going to be defensive in nature. Such a battle would likely favour firepower and endurance over speed and agility. We'd likely have the advantage."

"Unless the enemy had a monster like the Deathsaurer." Prolikov added.

"Good point." Austin replied. "Curtis, I want the program to reactivate that thing restarted. We will make it work."

"Certainly." Curtis said, making a note on his file.

"There is one other thing." Douglas spoke up. "I'm assuming that you have some long term plan to keep everyone under control. I suspect that 'we must all hide in this hole in the ground in case the bad guys come to get us' can only last so far."

"I had some thoughts on that matter." Hawker replied. "I think we may have an answer in our own origins."

All eyes turned to him. "Well?" Austin asked.

"By now, there are very few people left who were alive when we first arrived here. Fewer still were adults. Our histories tend to skip over what happened and what bought us here in the first place. What I propose is that we give our people a mission of sorts."

"And that is?"

"We change things. We make it less that we fled form our home that we had destroyed, and more like we were forced out. We came to this world involuntarily and crashed, being marooned here, surrounded by hostile natives. However, we do have a chance to return to the idyllic paradise – or whatever you prefer – that we originally came from."

"But only if we all work hard, stay together and trust in the government." Austin finished. "We give everyone a goal that they can work towards. Through your sacrifice, everyone's lives can be better." He smiled. "Nice work there."

"It's a pretty basic philosophy, but it can be made to work. Today's harsh environment is rewarded with tomorrow's paradise." Hawker finished. "It has worked in past, and I suspect that it will work here."

Austin looked around the room. "Ladies, Gentlemen, we have done good work here today. What we've established here will serve us well in the years to come."

-


	41. Future

Novo Zermalya

Dark Continent

1700 Hours

"So that's pretty much it." Rose finished as she jumped down from her perch on one of the coffin-like boxes. "I'm missing a few bits here and there, but you get the picture."

Sel didn't want to look Rose in the eyes. There was just a hint of smugness in the other woman's voice, something that said 'And yeah, I knew this all along and you didn't'. "So we've been lied to all along."

"Pretty much." Rose replied. "Austin and the others made sure that we would all remain here, working away to support him for the rest of his life. And when he finally dropped dead, his successors saw fit to keep the system in place. I mean, why ever the hell not?"

"Yeah, I figured as much." Sel replied, quietly. "And we just go along, because we have out great destiny to fulfil."

"An empty promise to sustain us." Matt added. "Very clever."

Sel sighed. "Damn. I… I didn't expect al this. I mean, I read the journal and saw that there… there were a number of contradictions between what Quentin said and the official line." She swallowed before continuing. "I was initially reluctant to believe them but at the same time, I had to see for myself. I didn't realise just how wrong I was. Everything turned out to be…" She turned away and tilted her head back, supposedly to take in the room around her. In fact it was so that Rose wouldn't see her face.

"Captain?" Matt asked. "Sel? Are you okay?"

"No." She muttered. "I mean… I didn't expect any of this. My whole world has… my whole world has just crumbled underneath me. Damn it, I've been living a lie for my whole life."

"Yes." Matt quietly replied. "I'm sorry, captain. I'm sorry that this has all happened."

She turned to face him. "It's not your fault, Matt. You weren't to know. None of us were."

"For the most part, at least." Rose said as she leaped off the coffin to stand next to the pair of them. "What I know has been pieced together from years of investigation, bribery, arm twisting, blackmail and a little bit of gratuitous flaunting of my looks." She glanced at Sel. "Don't look so surprised. You could easily pull it off, sis."

With her dark skin, black hair and deep brown eyes, Sel was considered to be somewhat exotic looking amongst the normally pale Zemalyan people. She'd never thought about it herself.

"Were you ever planning on sharing this with anyone else?" Matt asked.

"Didn't see the need to, initially." She replied. "Truth being told, most of this was going to be used as extra leverage. My fare for the ticket to the top, so to speak."

Matt shook his head. "You really don't care about anyone aside from yourself, do you?"

"Believe it or not, I do." She replied, looking directly at Sel. "I haven't forgotten when we were kids, Sis." She began. "You looked out for me. I'm doing the same for you now." She looked around. "I'm glad you found this place. I felt that you should know about all this."

"Why the sudden concern?" Sel muttered, her voice edged with anger.

"Because otherwise I know that you'd end up getting yourself in trouble asking all the wrong questions." She replied. "You're a smart kid, Sel. Don't screw it up."

Sel sighed. "So this is it, isn't it?" She muttered. "There's nothing else to say."

"Not quite." Rose replied. "I do have one last thing to show the pair of you. You've both come this far, so it'd be a shame if you left before the final act."

"What is it?" Matt asked.

"It's not here." She replied. "What we need to do is go outside." She smiled. "Of course, that shouldn't be a problem to you guys. You've spent more time outside in the last six months then most people here will in their entire tiny little lives." She looked at the pair of them. "In a way, I envy you."

"Envy? You?" Sel began. "I find that hard to believe."

"It's true." Rose said, nodding. "You've left here. You've seen the big bad outside world. You've lived amongst its people. You've seen what it's like." She smiled. "It's so different from in here, isn't it?"

"Well… yes." Sel admitted. She thought about the people she'd met on the outside, specifically Sandra, Rick and Vic. They had been very different people to the types that she'd have met here.

"It's open." Matt said. "Free. I think that's the world. There's a blue sky overhead. There's no feeling of being boxed in. I think… I think this place, living inside a mountain allows us to be enclosed. We don't want to leave the safety of our private little world."

"It'd be great." Rose admitted. "If only."

"You wanted to show us something." Sel said, angrily.

"Yeah." Rose replied. "I'll arrange for you two to get patrol duty tomorrow afternoon. Go out as normal, and I'll meet you outside. From there we'll take a detour." She smiled. "Trust me, you don't want to miss this."

"Thanks." Sel muttered. "I mean, I-"

"No, as I said, sis, I owe it to you." She turned around. "I've got to get back to make arrangements, see people... all the usual stuff. I'll see the pair of you tomorrow." She climbed up a ladder, and then disappeared into the gloomy depths of the room.

Sel turned to face Matt. "Matt… I…" She began. This wasn't going to be easy. "I want to thank you for supporting me in this and coming this far. I… I don't honestly think I could have made it, or taken in all of this without you."

"I understand." He replied, quietly. "I hadn't expected anything like this when we started out this morning." There was a pause. 'I'm glad I could be here to help."

"Thanks." She muttered quietly. "We… we should go back and…" she swallowed, hard, screwing up her eyes. 'We should go back before somebody notices we're gone and…" She leaned forward, her head on his shoulder. "I have to do this, Matt. I have to know, regardless of what it costs me."

"I understand." He said quietly as he put his arms around her to comfort her. "I want you to know that whatever you do, I will be there to support you, both as your second and as a friend. I want to know what's going on here too, captain. I think we all have a right to know."

"Thank you." She said quietly. "For everything."

-

De Lyon surveyed his office, taking it all in for what could be the last time. The wheels had been set in motion. Now was the time for him to act. What he was going to do would involve a considerable degree of risk to him at a number of levels. However, if it worked, the rewards would be enormous.

He picked up a report from his desk to read over again. It was from one of his survey teams, who had been conducting a long-range reconnaissance and exploration mission across the Dark Continent, following up on information gained from the Quentin journal, as well as information from the older journals that Quentin himself had used. While the report had been far from conclusive, it had all the information that he wanted.

His communicator beeped, indicating an incoming call. Switching it on, he could see that it was Gunter Sturm, his aide. "Excuse me, Major." He began. "But Dr Cortez just called. He's ready to proceed with the operation."

"Excellent." De Lyon replied. "Tell him that I'm on my way. Have my car made ready and bought round the front of the building."

"Yes sir." The link closed

De Lyon smiled to himself. This was it, he thought. All those years of hard work were about to pay off. He'd had enough of the petty politics and power gaming of the military authorities of this city. Being undercut by Captain O'Bannon, his supposed subordinate during the A-X affair, had been the last straw for him. But now all that was about to change.

Thirty minutes later, his staff car pulled up in front of a secure medical facility, normally reserved for military use. Besides treatment of various combat injuries, its main use was for the installation of the cybernetic control rigs that were used to control the Zoids as well as the implementation of the genetic enhancement program used to create their superior pilots. It also had a number of experimental and research facilities. It was to one of these that he was headed.

The room was guarded by a pair of heavily-armed special forces troopers. De Lyon gave each of them a quick glance as he passed them. He didn't want to take any chances with what he was doing here today. Inside was Dr Herman Cortez, the foremost authority in the fields of cybernetics and nanotechnology. Two months ago, he'd been kidnapped by terrorists who had tried to use him in a plot to take over the city. Inside, De Lyon smiled at the irony, given what he was planning.

"Ah, Major. Good to see you." Cortez hurriedly began. "As I told your aide, We are ready to proceed with the operation immediately. Configuring the nanites did prove to be a challenge, but the tests have proven to be good so far."

"Excellent." He picked up several pages of test data and skimmed through them. Everything looked good on paper. The actual application would prove to be the interesting part. The plan was to inject a series of specially modified nanites who would interface directly with the brain, constructing a web of specially designed neural interfaces. Essentially an extension of the cybernetic neural interface technology, it was still a radical and untried idea.

He handed a file to Cortez. "Here's my complete medical history, doctor. As soon as you've gone through it and made the necessary preparations, I want you to proceed with the operation on me."

"Major?" He asked. "Is that wise? Shouldn't we test it more thoroughly first?"

"This is a matter of some urgency, doctor. We have no time to waste."

-

Like most of the military's personnel, higher-ranked officers lived in apartment complexes. For the most part, these were drab single-room affairs, but some of the higher-ranked individuals had better places.

Rose silently moved around the apartment complex, checking door numbers as she went. Even though a place like one of these was beyond her current means or rank, she was pretty familiar with the place. She had done a lot of discreet slipping in and out of certain apartments in this complex before. The one she was after tonight was not one of them. Besides, she wouldn't normally be doing this is filthy, dirk-stained coveralls.

She found the one she was after and discreetly knocked on the door, glancing around to double-check that nobody was watching. Usually when she did this, there was someone waiting to discreetly usher her in. Not this time.

After a moment, the dor opened. Inside was a tall attractive woman who appeared to be in her early fourties. Rose knew that, as a first generation genetic upgrade, she was actually closer to sixty. (It gave Rose no end of satisfaction to know that she would be young and beautiful-looking for a long time to come). She had long dark brown hair with a slight red tint, brown eyes and two long scars that ran down her right cheek. The look was unmistakable. She was still wearing her duty uniform, albeit without the usual jacket.

"Captain O'Bannon." He woman began. "I hadn't expected to see you on my doorstep. Maybe two doors down, but not here." She glanced sideways at a different door. "And better dressed to."

Rose smiled to herself. "Sorry to bother you, Colonel Cade." She replied. "But I need to speak to you on a matter of some urgency."

"Ah." Cade replied. "Come in, please."

The two walked into her apartment. Compared to Rose's small three-room affair, it was almost lavish in its size. Looking around, a number of things caught he eye. Bookshelves lined with military histories and technical guides, a model of a Reddler on one end of a shelf, a pair of antique rifles hanging on the wall, photos of a pair of children, one girl and one boy.

"Don't worry, we're alone." She began and took a seat at the dining table, and gestured for Rose to do the same. "So tell me what's so important that you're bothering me at this time."

"I have some concerns regarding major De Lyon's activities." She began.

"Trying to backstab your commander to get ahead?" Cade interrupted. "This should be interesting."

"For once, I'm not just thinking of myself." Rose admitted. Cade knew her well enough that she should be honest, she figured. "I'm not sure what he's doing, however. Of course, this could all be official and I could be making a mistake."

"Go on."

"When I arrived back from the Shelflands, De Lyon took control of the Special Operations squad from me, obstinately on your orders. " She glanced at Cade. "Although I can tell form that look you're giving me that this isn't the case."

"Sort of." She replied. "I ordered De Lyon ensure that the squad was taken to reserve status and that you didn't run off with them."

"At any rate, I'm pretty sure he hasn't." Rose replied. That was the easy part. Now for the difficult part. "I was…" she trailed off. "I was out for a long walk, and I accidentally got lost."

"Obviously." Cade replied looking over Rose's dishevelled state. "And you accidentally discovered another level below the city." She glared at Rose. "Don't look so surprised, captain. You're not the only one to have snuck a few peaks at Quentin's journal. Although I'll admit, I've never been there myself."

Rose wasn't about to explain how she'd first found the place, so she decided to play along. "I'm glad you know, Colonel. That will make the next part of what I have to say easier."

"I'm listening."

"I observed the Special Operations squad entering the storage facility on the lowest level." She explained. "They used a Gustav to remove a device from the storage chamber that I believe to be a nanotechnology assembler. I didn't get a chance to follow them, however."

"Interesting." Cade replied. "And you have no idea where they went to?"

"No." Rose admitted. "By the time I got back up to the elevator's top level, the Gustav was long gone."

"I see." Cade leaned forwards, casually rubbing the scars on her cheek in a way that reminded rose of Sandra. Her injury came from a battle over twenty years ago, when the Zemalyan military had essentially waged war on everyone they found in the Dark Continent. In the end, it had achieved very little. Cade had come out of that war a hero. Her two scars had inspired the "warpaint" look that so many pilots preferred today.

"Thank you for that, Captain." She finally spoke. "I don't know exactly what's going on, but I gave no orders for the SpecOps to enter the lower city, let alone remove a nanoforge. I'll have to look into what's going on. I can't say if it's De yon or somebody else using him as a fall guy, but I want to at least know what he's up to."

"There is one other thing, colonel." Rose continued.

"I should have guessed that your motives weren't entirely selfless, captain." Cade replied. "Go on."

"I need to borrow Captain Magyari, Lieutenant Black and their Zoids for a few hours tomorrow." She began.

"And I dare not ask why, I suppose." She stood and walked over to a table with several glass bottles on it.

"Yes, Colonel."

Cade poured herself a drink. "Whatever it is you're up to, does it involve…" She paused. "Corporal Cade in any way?"

Rose smiled. So she did have a weakness after all. "No, Colonel. In fact, I think I could be doing her a favour by this."

"I see." Cade turned around. "Go ahead. I'll send the orders through to you tomorrow morning." She glared at Rose. "But understand this, captain. You've given me enough tonight for me to bury you if I wanted to. Don't make me."

"I won't." She said and stood. "Thank you for your time."

"You know the way out." Cade replied, and took a sip from her glass. "But thank you for your information."

Rose stood and left silently. As soon as she was out the door, she was back to moving silently and avoiding potential perusers. She didn't relax until she was back in her own district of the living blocks, and even then not until she was back inside her own apartment away from any potential prying eyes.

She slammed the door shut and leaned back on it. Odd, she thought. I've been sneaking in and out of the apartments of senior officers for a while now. Why should I be so frightened now? She sighed. Probably because I've just handed Cade my head on a platter. She didn't believe that Cade would turn her in, but there was still that element of doubt and uncertainty.

She walked into her bedroom and threw off the filthy coveralls, striping herself down to her underwear, the only thing she had on that wasn't filthy. She considered destroying the coveralls to get rid of any potentially incriminating evidence. Great, now I'm being paranoid, she mentally added. I'm safe for the moment. Quit worrying.

She collapsed backwards on the bed and stared up at the ceiling for a moment, before glancing at a small bedside cabinet. "Hmm…" She muttered to herself and stood. Opening the cabinet, she pulled out a noteputer, similar to the one that she and any other officer wore on their wrist. This one had undergone a number of modifications, however. It had been stripped down of any hardware or software that would allow it to interface with any other computers. It also had a primitive voice recognition and synthesizer system that Rose had gotten installed to make using it a little easier.

She flicked it on. After a few seconds, a security program activated and requested a vocal identity check. "Rose O'Bannon." She replied. "Passcode Steelgrave." The computer chirped back in reply, and then opened a loading screen, with a bar indicating progress.

Rose collapsed back onto the bed, holding the computer above her. A part of her wanted to laugh out loud. Her she was, in bed, near naked and the only person here to share it with couldn't care less. The screen beeped again to indicate that the program had loaded, then went blank, save for a flashing green cursor in the top left corner.

"Evening, Slaughter. How you going?" Rose casually spoke, seemingly to nobody.

"Oh, it's you." A flat, metallic voice replied through the speech synthesiser. As it spoke, a series of glyphs appeared on the screen, representing the speaker's native language. "What is it you want now, you primitive fleshbag?"

"My, aren't we bitter today?" Rose replied. These conversations always started this way. They baited each other for a while then got down to real discussion. It was kind of fun.

"If you had your mind ripped from its body and stored in a tiny little box, you'd be bitter too." The voice replied, the glyphs decorating the screen. She suspected she didn't want an exact translation of what he was saying. "If I had my real body, I'd crush you in an instant."

"Well you don't." Rose replied. "So you have to play along with me. Otherwise, you spend the rest of your days stuck in this tiny little box. So let's just think about that for a minute."

There was a long silence. Rose loved the advantage she had in this situation. She'd found the body of a gold-skinned android deactivated in one of the coffins in the lower level. Much to her surprise, it was still functional, but dormant. She'd made a copy of its mind onto a computer for her own study. So far, it had proven to be somewhat informative. The only question she had was on how she could use the information it had given her.

"So what do you want?" The voice replied, emotionless as normal. Rose could almost imagine him sulking.

"Today…" She began, then paused. "Today I want to know more about this place. You said you built it. I want to know why."

-

Within the city, there were a number of memorials that were considered to be almost sacred. Most of these were new, having only been erected since the construction of the new city. There were a few, however, that were reconstructions of far older ones that had originally been in the old city. Many of these had been destroyed in the battle against Chrom's forces, but in each case they had been meticulously reconstructed.

To Sel, one of them had always seemed more important then any of the others. It was by far the oldest of the various monuments and in many ways it was far form the most impressive. A single obelisk carved out of one of the lighter types of stone found in the continent, it had been dedicated to those people who had crewed the ship that first bought them to this world.

She stood before the monument, looking over the names. "Konstantinov." She muttered to herself, looking at one of the names. "Macallister. O'Brien." There were fresh flowers laid at the base of the monument. Yesterday had been foundation day, the celebration of the anniversary of their first landing on the planet. Sel had spent most of the day in the depths of the city, learning the awful truth about her world.

She turned away to see Matt waiting at the edge of the park. Glancing around, she walked over to him, strangely nervous for some reason. She'd been like that since she got back from her expedition to the lower city. Why she couldn't say.

"How are you going, captain?" He asked

"Tired, confused, suspicious of everything around me." She replied. "I thought that when I became an officer that my subordinates would be my biggest source of worry." She looked around again, almost as if to check for someone watching or following her. "Now look at me."

"It's understandable." Matt said. "Given what we've found in the last few days."

Sel nodded. "I had to wonder if they knew what would happen when they landed on this world." She indicated towards the monument. "Do you think anyone could have foreseen what happened here?"

"I doubt it." Matt said. "They never planned on coming to this world in the first place."

"And they can't have expected to find that the dominant local life forms were giant robot animals." Sel added. "I suppose. I guess it makes me wonder where they were going."

"That I suspect we'll never know." Matt said. "I suspect that information died with the last of the original crew. Truthfully, they probably never thought about leaving this planet."

"Until Austin came along and re-wrote history." Of all the things she'd learned, the truth about Michael Austin was one of the harshest. He was considered to be a hero for what he did in saving the city from Chrom, and ranked alongside Konstantinov in stature. And he was actually a greedy manipulator who'd killed thousands to achieve his own aims.

Matt nodded. "We can't let that happen again."

"No." Sel replied. "We must know the truth. All of it."

"Trust me, you will." Rose emerged form behind a tree.

"Were you waiting here all along?" Matt asked.

"Yup. Wanted to see what you two were up to." She turned to Sel. "Are you both ready to go?"

"Yes." She replied.

"Good. I've arranged for us to go out on patrol. Once out, we're going to go off-course by a considerable degree and wander off. Follow my lead, but don't ask to many questions." She said. "Radio silence may be a good idea."

"Right." Sel replied. "Let's go."

-

"Well, what do you think?" Rose asked as she opened the canopy of her Blade Liger. Her Zoid, along with Matt and Sel's, were standing on a ridge overlooking a vast, open plain. A single feature dominated the view below.

It was a mass of rusted metal, twisted into a mass of unrecognisable shapes by stresses that the original structure had never been designed to take. The scale of it was staggering, however. The mess of wreckage had to be well over a kilometre long and several hundred meters wide. The size complete structure would have been staggering. Neither Sel nor Matt had ever seen anything like it, not inside their city or in their time in the Shelflands.

"What…" Sel began. "What is it?"

"Take a look over there." Rose replied, pointing to a large tower that jutted out of the landscape at an angle, the same rusted colour as the rest of the wreckage. Peering at it, Sel could make out more details then she'd initially seen. The top of the tower had a number of circular openings that reminded her of something… and then she realised what it was.

The tower looked like the engine section on a Whale King, only several times the size. "Its…" She began. And then the full effect of what she was seeing hit her.

"It's the Sovetskii Soyuz, isn't it?" Matt asked.

Sel looked down at the mess below her. This was the great ship that had supposedly bought her ancestors there from their original home. Since she was young, she had been told about how the great ship would once again be rebuilt and used to take them back to their original home. Looking at it, she couldn't see any way that it could happen. Aside from the engines, nothing was even recognisable.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a shock when you find it, isn't it?" Rose said. "I pretty much reacted the same way when I first saw it."

"How did that happen?" Matt asked.

"When I was very young on one of my first ever patrols. I deliberately wandered off course to see what was oh so tantalisingly labelled as a restricted area." She shrugged. "I pretty much instantly figured out what it was."

"So…" Sel continued. "What happened to it?"

"The ship mostly broke up in the crash." Rose replied. "Most of its hull was broken up to build habitats for the colony. Most of those were in turn dismantled and used to make the first buildings for the city. The engines were left intact, probably because they lacked the resources to dismantle or move them."

"So we can't leave the planet." Sel said.

"Even if we could, I suspect we couldn't get anywhere." Matt added. "From what I've gathered, the Soyuz didn't cross interstellar space under its own power. So even if we could leave the planet, we couldn't go anywhere."

Sel looked over the ruins of the ship. How was this allowed to happen, she asked herself. How did we end up here, living these lies and hiding ourselves from the outside world? It was daunting.

"So what do I do now?" She asked herself, out loud. "How do I go back, knowing what I know?"

"We try." Matt said. "For now, we have nowhere else to go. Do you really think that they'd let us leave?"

"No." Sel replied. "They wouldn't."

"You're right." Rose nodded. "Trust me on this." She sighed. "Sel, I showed you all this because, despite the way I act, I do care for you. But I'm going to have to ask you to do something for me."

"What?"

"De Lyon's definitely up to something." She replied. "And it's almost certainly not good. He doesn't trust me any more, but he will trust you. I need you to keep an eye on him for me. No, not just for me, but for everyone's sake."

"Regardless of what they may believe, they are still our people." Matt said. "And it is our duty to protect them."

Sel nodded. "I understand." She watched the lengthening shadows as the sun began to sink towards the horizon. "I'll do it, Rose. Not for you, not for me, but for our people." She looked out at the ruined ship. "They're who matter the most now."

-

Whale King Null

Dark Continent

1600 hours

A solitary Whale King descended form the clouds, dropping low to the ground. Below it was a maze of twisting, turning canyons of various sizes and shapes. Some were large enough to allow the largest of Zoids through, while others were barely wide enough to allow a man to pass.

De Lyon looked out over the bridge of the whale king at the terrain bellow. He'd come here for a reason. Combing through the Quentin journal and all the other references it contained indicated that there was something about this particular place. Time after time, people, Zoids and even ships had gone missing around here. Thirty years ago, a squad of their own Dark Zoids had vanished here while fighting bandits. The information he'd gathered indicated that there was something here that he could harness and use for his own purposes.

"Put us down in that valley" he said, indicating to a large, open area at a network of canyons. The Whale King slowly descended into the valley, coming to a rest at its floor.

"We're down." A technician reported.

"Excellent." He replied. "Deploy the Zoids immediately. And have the prisoners bought to the forward Zoid bay." He turned and walked out of the bridge, a grin of anticipation on his face.

A few minutes later, he was outside with the rest of his troops, surveying the valley from his recently-acquired Zoidzilla. Around him were the other Zoids of the special operations squad, which were a mismatched mixture of types; mostly units form Pie's battalion. A number of them were armed with large, bulky launchers in place of their normal weapons. Looking around, he could tell that this was the right place. It had to be.

The debris of dozens, if not hundreds of Zoids were scattered around the valley. Most were so far gone as to be unrecognisable, but he could make out a few. The mangled wreckage of an Arosaurer, in the same colours as the ones used by his men, lay near his own Zoid's feet. Further down the valley was the forward half of a grey Command Wolf, and a dismembered Houndsoldier. Leaning on one cliff was a large fin that looked like it had been torn free from the side of a Whale Shark. He could barely make out the insignia of Kandrak's batallion on the side.

"This is it." He muttered. "This is the place."

"Orders, major?" Captain Sturm began, his Iron Kong turning to look at the black and silver Zoidzilla.

"Bring out the prisoners." He replied. "Everyone else is to take their positions."

A pair of Strike Zillas emerged from the Whale King, a pair of Evil Scorpions between them. The scorpions were piloted by a pair of survivors from Pie's forces who De Lyon had personally ordered removed form their confinement. They were a vital part of the operation. The Procession stopped in front of the Zoidzilla.

De Lyon looked around. Several Strikezillas, a Claw, a Saber and the Iron Kong were positioned on top of the cliffs, while a Storm Tiger and Dragonfly hovered overhead. The Zoidzilla turned back to face the Evil Scorpions. "You two should be considering yourselves to be incredibly lucky." He began, speaking over the Zoid's PA. "I'm giving you an opportunity to go free."

Neither of them said a thing. It paid not to answer back to the man in the Gojulas. "All you have to do to earn your freedom is run down that valley." The Zoid indicated to the valley that the other Zoids were standing on top of. "My men won't shoot at you. If you make it out of that valley, you are free to go. It's that simple."

The two Evil Scorpions skittered around, probably reflecting their pilots uncertainly. "Fine. We'll do this a different way." The Zoidzilla stomped forwards, looming over the smaller Zoids. "Go now, or else I will destroy you myself." He finished.

The pair of Zoids turned and ran into the valley as fast as they could. Inside the cockpit of his machine, De Lyon smiled. This was it. He cleared his mind and began to concentrate.

For a minute, there was silence. Then there was a terrible, blood-curdling roar. "All troops, ready!" Sturm called out. "Prepare to fire." The roar came again, followed by an explosion. Their prey had found its bait. Now the question was if it would come after the rest of them.

De Lyon stared down the canyon, waiting. Then it came. A massive, black winged shape, swooping down the canyon, red eyes blazing in the dying light, a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth open to strike.

"Open fire, now!" Sturm shouted. As one, the troops on the canyon's edge opened fire. Large metallic nets shot out from the launchers, raining down on the creature inside the canyon. Blue electricity cracked across its body as the electrical dischargers in the nets fired to shock the Zoid. It stumbled and fell, crashing to the canyon floor.

The victory was short lived. The Zoid rose again, roaring as electricity flared across its body. the These weapons were capable of containing a Deadborder or Darkhorn, but it seemed that this creature was far, far more powerful then either of them.

"Spray it immediately!" He shouted "Don't let it escape!" Sturm knew what would likely happen if the creature got loose. They wouldn't stand a chance. High above, a Dragonfly and a Storm Tiger both swooped down from the clouds. Each of them had been equipped with a specially designed tank and sprayer attached to their backs. The two dived into the canyon, the sprayers activating and spreading a fine grey mist across the large black creature. Their run complete, the two airborne Zoids pulled away, preparing for another pass if needed.

For a second, the black Zoid seemed to settle and stop fighting the nets. Its wings and head drooped almost submissively. Then it suddenly reared back, roaring in anger. Before anyone could react, it shredded the nets and charged out of the canyon and straight at De Lyon's Zoidzilla.

"It's going for the major!" Sturm shouted. "Stop it!"

Before anyone could react, the Black Zoid leaped at him… and stopped, its clawed feet crashing down on the ground in front of it. It growled for a moment, then bowed its head, the red canopy cover sliding open to reveal its empty cockpit.

"Major?" Sturm asked. "Did it work?"

De Lyon sat back in his command couch and smiled as he looked over the creature in front of him. "Perfectly." He replied. Concentrating on the black Zoid, he closed his eyes and mentally commanded it to lower its head. "The connection is perfect. I can feel its mind from here, and control it." The Zoid responded as he'd hoped, lowering its head, giving him a clear view of its empty cockpit. "And now it's all mine."


	42. Barmy Army

Whale King Oregon

Over the Wastelands

2200 Hours

By the standards that one used to measure Whale Kings, the Oregon was not a particularly impressive ship. An older ship of the class, it had been long since retired form the military and stripped of most of its weaponry. Re-sold as surplus, it was destined to live out its days as a cargo hauler. While it still carried Zoids, today they were almost all carried inside packaging crates from the factory to heir new owners.

Today's load was a shipment of Gravity Zoids, new low-budget models produced in Chronos. Designed to be god at one thing at the expense of everything else, Gravity Zoids were rarely liked by their pilots. On the other hand, purchasing officers loved them for their low price per unit, and they were the ones who made the decisions. This particular batch were heading for the Vinterlands, to fill a gap left in their forces by the sudden disappearance of an entire battalion three months ago.

It was a routine flight, following a standard course. While it did pass over the wastelands, it was only for a relatively brief period, and friendly air traffic control stations would monitor the ship all the way. Which was why Captain Hollister was immediately worried when he was called to the bridge.

"What is it?" He asked a technician as he leaned over her shoulder. He'd been asleep only a few minutes earlier, but had been woken by a frantic call. He didn't need this right now. It was a routine flight. They didn't need him right now.

"I've lost contact with the Red Mountain control centre, Captain." The tech replied. "I sent a regular check-in to them, but there was no response."

"Did you retry?" He asked. The junior technicians you got on ships these days needed to be told everything.

"Yes sir." She stammered out. "Twice. Each time there was no response."

He looked at a navigational screen. "We're fifteen minutes form the next air traffic control sector." He taped on the map. "That's at Station City. Radio them and see what's happening."

"Yes captain." The thec replied.

"Captain. I've got a unidentified ship to our stern." Another tech spoke up. "Looks like a Whale King. It's matching our heading and altitude, but closing fast."

"Can you raise them?" Hollister asked.

"I'm trying now." He replied. "But they're not responding to us."

"We loose contact with the ground control station and now a mystery Whale King is tailing us." Hollister muttered. "It's an attack! Sound the alarm!"

"Yes captain." The technician pressed a few buttons on his control panel. Within seconds, sirens rang out across the ship.

Hollister picked up a communicator. "This is the captain speaking. We are being pursued by an unknown ship, presumably hostile-"

"Captain! Multiple launches form the other ship!" The technician interrupted him. "Looks like Zoids, sir! They're closing on us!"

"We are under attack!" Hollister shouted. "Repeat, we are under attack! All gunners to your stations immediately!"

While most of the ship's weapons had been stripped off when it was decommissioned, it still maintained a few defensive weapons for such emergencies. They wouldn't be of much use if the Whale King itself opened fire, but it could help slow down the attacking Zoids.

"The gunners are waiting for permission to fire, Captain." The tech began.

"Wait… we'll see what they do." He didn't want to provoke them unnecessarily. "But if they attack us, we'll blow them out of the sky."

"Yes captain." The tech replied.

Hollister looked around the bridge. It was quiet, a kind of nervous silence that comes of waiting to see what happens next. Looking around the bridge, all Hollister could see was the night sky around him. Then something in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

It was a Zoid, a small black-and red one that resembled nothing as much as a winged lizard. It had pulled up alongside the bridge, keeping level with the path of the ship itself. Glancing to the other side, he could see a second one.

"Captain, we have an incoming signal." A female tech spoke up.

"Who from?"

"Unknown. They're demanding to speak to you."

Hollister grunted. "Put it on." He took his place in the commander's chair.

A window opened up on his personal display screen. It showed the face of a military officer, probably in his thirties. He had sharp, angular features, dark brown eyes and, he presumed, short black hair. The man wore a black uniform with a black and red officer's cap. "Hollister here." He began

"Surrender your immediately or we will shoot it down." The man replied, getting straight to the point. "Our Zoids have your ship surrounded. Our own Whale King is faster and batter armed then yours. Your communications are jammed and you are still ten minutes form the nearest help. That's more then enough time for us to shoot you down."

"And If I refuse?" He replied, desperately stalling for time.

"As I said, we will shot you down."

There was a metallic tearing sound form the roof of the ship. Numerous sirens went off around the bridge.

"What's happening?" He shouted.

"Hull breach, captain!" A tech replied. "Top level, just aft of the bridge!"

"What?"

An explosion rocked the bridge and filed it with smoke. Hollister was shaken in his seat as the whole ship seemed to move underneath him, followed by a sudden inrush of cold air. He stumbled to his feet to see figures charging into the bridge through the now-shattered main doors. They wore featureless black armour with one-way facemasks, and carried bulky but dangerous looking rifles. One of them stood over him, the rifle pointed at his face.

"Order your crew to stand down." The soldier began. "Now."

"Y-yes..." Hollister nervously returned to his chair. "All crew, stand down immediately." He spoke hurriedly into the mike, glancing at the soldier. "Remain at your stations until further orders."

The trooper nodded, then pressed the side of his own helmet. "Arrow one to command. We have taken the ship."

-

Bed Springs

The Wastelands

1400 hours

Following the attack on Lanard, and the Lanard militia's subsequent attack on several mercenaries in the town, the mercenary trade had pretty much abandoned it. With Rusty Springs little more then a crater, as a whole the mercenary community had moved along to the next marginally governed town they could find. That just happened to be Bed Springs.

In the last two months, Bed Springs had been booming. Many of its near-empty hotels were suddenly picking up. Its faltering weapons and parts dealers now had a near constant stream of customers. The junkyards buzzed with scavengers of all varieties picking through it at all hours of the day. And the Arena of Sport had suddenly become an interesting venue, as tempers flared over and rivals had a place to settle their disputes.

For Sandra, Rick and Vic, this development had proven to be of considerable benefit. It meant that they could work out of their home, rather then travel between seedy motels all the time, which was both a financial and lifestyle benefit. So after a hard day's violence, they knew they could come back to something closer to their real home rather then a run down flea-ridden firetrap. Well, it was a run-down flea-ridden firetrap, but it was one where the beds were comfortable and the rooms were free.

Sandra quietly wondered when Bed Springs would be burnt to the ground as had seemed to happen to every place they went to recently. Rick replied by saying that the town had already survived one attack and that anything else that happened would probably only be improvements.

She couldn't argue with that.

Today, however, Sandra was taking a self-declared day off. It was oppressively hot outside, and she had no desire to go into it. She figured there was no work out there to be found anyway. Nobody wanted to be out in the heat, regardless of whether they were a potential employer or employee.

So for now she was lying back on the couch, half asleep and minding her own business. She felt calm and relaxed, and had even managed to stop thinking about the potential disasters hat could befall her while she was clam and relaxed.

"Hey."

She blinked awake. Vic was standing over her, leaning on the end of the couch. "What is it?" she muttered.

"I want to go to the bagel shop." She began. "I need to get a coffee. And a bagel. With the cream and the cheese and the creamy creamy cheesy creamy." She blurted out. "Cheesy cheesy."

Sandra blinked.

"What?"

"I said I want to go to the bagel shop." She said. "I want to you go to the bagel shop and get me a coffee and a bagel." She continued rambling. "Come on. Get up. Don't be so frelling lazy."

"Uhhhh." Sandra muttered. "Go ask Rick."

"He's locked himself in his room with his drawing board. Busy dribbling over undressed badly drawn women." Vic explained. "So you need to take me to the bagel shop so I can get a bagel. With cream and cheese. And the cheesy cheesy creamy cheesy cream."

Uh. She didn't want to move, but she knew that she wouldn't get a minutes peace if she didn't. "Uh… give me five more minutes."

"What?" Vic stammered. "Five minutes? Are you nuts? If this was the army, they wouldn't give you five more minutes."

Something was wrong here, Sandra thought. Something wasn't right.

"Fine." Vic replied. "I come back in five minutes and you're not up, I electrify you in the bathtub with a toaster. You have been warned." The blonde woman turned to leave.

Sandra blinked and sat up. "Hang on a second, Vic, why don't you just go to the Bagel shop yourself?"

"'cause the army won't let me." She casually replied.

"The what?" Sandra asked. Then she heard something. A regular, rhythmic sound, like many people marching in formation. Or something else.

"Army." She replied. "You know, people with all the Zoids and the ships and the guns that do the firing and the shooting and the killing and things. That army."

"What the frelling hell?" Sandra got up and hastily pulled on a pair of pants. Something was going on here. Even at her most loopy, Vic wouldn't just be making something like that up.

She stumbled to the front door, swinging it open and peering out. Sure enough, there were Zoids walking past her house. That in and of itself wasn't unusual. In the last two months, all manner of Zoids had been tromping around the town. But not like this. Not in neat, orderly ranks. And not in such numbers.

A row of Godos went past, marching in neat formations like regular human soldiers. Behind them was a Gunbluster, which in turn lead a squadron of Cannon Tortoises. Behind those was a troop of light grey Command Wolves, and she suspected that there was more behind them.

"See? Told you." Vic added, standing behind her.

Sandra blinked. What in the name of Tomy was going on here, she asked herself. "And they just turned up like this?"

"Yep." Vic said. "First came the advanced force. Guysacks, Arosaurers and a K-Woof. Big doggie. They sniffled around the town and then the others showed up. Lead by a Gordos. Big, blue, big guns."

"And you didn't think to tell me?" Sandra spluttered out.

"I didn't think it was important." She shrugged. "Until I needed to go out and get a bagel."

Sandra ducked back into the house and shouted up the stairs. "Rick! Get down here now!"

"Can't!" Rick replied. "Drawing!"

"It can wait!"

"No it can't!" He shouted. "I can get a great view of them from up here!"

Sandra decided to let it wait. Rick might just be getting them a far better idea of what was going on. Or, at the very least, some idea of their numbers. A squad of Pteras passed overhead, as if to illustrate the point. Actually, if anyone had an idea of what was going on right now, she'd really like to know.

"Fine." She shouted. "You stay there for the moment. Keep scribbling. I want to see what you've got after they've all gone."

"A cramped hand?" Vic offered.

Sandra glared at her. No, I won't even bother, she mentally added. "I'm going to check on our Zoids. You two stay here and try not to break anything." She picked up her pocket communicator. "Give me a call if anything happens."

"Right."

"And don't climb on to the roof and take random shots at things."

"Awww…" Vic looked down, sulkily. "You ruin all my fun."

-

Up until recently, Bed Springs had a surplus of Zoid hangers. Most of the Zoids in the town were old and run down and usually parked out in the open wherever their pilots left them. Most of them were locals who figured that their Zoids weren't worth stealing Not that there was anyone around to steal them. Very few mercenaries visited the town, and the few that did had plenty of places to park their Zoids.

With the recent explosion in the mercenary trade, Sandra had found that Zoid space in the city had become a premium luxury. The run down rusted tin shed they sed to use had been booked out while they were away in Chronos. As a result, they'd had to look elsewhere. Sandra had eventually settled on an ornate structure that had been intended as a locomotive shed and had been designed by someone with an art-deco flair.

At the moment she was standing in front of it, a rather annoyed expression on her face. This was due to the fact that the shed had been secured, its main doors sealed shut with a pair of soldiers carrying assault rifles standing by the front and steadfastly refusing to give her access.

"What is going on here?" She snapped. "Who the frelling hell are you and why can't I get to my frelling Zoid?"

"Security, ma'am." One of the soldiers replied, maintaining a complete deadpan. "These Zoids have been temporarily secured for inspection."

"Inspection?" She stammered out. "That's my damned Zoid in there!"

"I do apologise for the inconvenience, ma'am." He continued, a complete deadpan. "This is only a temporary situation and should be resolved soon with your cooperation."

Sandra muttered darkly. She'd heard this kind of thing before. Mentally she sized up the two soldiers. They were both about her size, wearing body armour and carrying assault rifles. No, not good. She knew she was a good gunfighter, but she also knew that automatic rifles tended to nullify a lot of her advantages.

"Right." She said, looking around. "Tool." She added. "So in other words, get tooled and don't even think about going near your Zoid ever again." There was a lot more that she wanted to say, but she suspected it could lead to a serious beatdown. She turned around and began slowly walking back to the house. This was going to end well, she could tell.

As she walked, she watched the goings on around her carefully. There were soldiers around every hanger she passed, as well as a number of weapons and parts stores, and any Zoids that were parked in the street. Yeah, this looks like a pretty comprehensive takeover, she thought.

Both Rick and Vic were waiting by the front door when she got back. "Bad news." She began. "They've got the place pretty much buttoned up. Zoid hangers, weapon shops, everything is under guard for the moment. Any idea what's bought this on?"

"Could be a rouge military commander trying to carve out a small empire for himself." Rick said. "Wouldn't surprise me."

"Maybe they just want a bagel." Vic added.

"Shut up." Sandra muttered.

"We heard something about a meeting or something like that where someone would say something." Rick added, in an incredibly non-committal way. "Or something like that." He shrugged.

"Rick, you are the most amazingly useless person I've ever met." She replied.

"Meeting's in the middle of town at four." Vic commented. "Bring your own snacks."

Sandra turned to glare at her. "How'd you know that?" She asked.

"I went out to look at stuff while you were talking to the kitties." Vic replied. "Saw lots of shiny things. Lots of men with guns too. Guns are good, yeah. Plenty of Zoids, Gunbluster, Cannon Tort, Godos, Arosaurer." She counted off on her fingers. "Guysack, Pteras, Hamma-Hamma Head…"

"So whoever these people are, they've come packed." Rick added.

"And there's more." Vic continued. "Gustavs. Lots of Gustavs. Saw 'em in the distance while I was up on the bridge." She indicated towards the rusting overhead rail track behind the house.

"Dare I ask what you were doing up there?"

Vic grinned.

"No, I thought not."

-

The centre of town was just that, and little more. It was a patch of dirt where a number of major roads intersected, set to a nice backdrop of rusting overhead rail. Its only real use was that it served as a turn circle for large and unwieldy Zoids that couldn't suddenly turn around on one of the main roads.

Somebody had decided to rearrange things, however. A Gustav, wearing UZN armed forces markings, was parked in the middle of the intersection. A podium had been set up on one of its trailers, and soldiers were milling around it. There were already a number of people there when Sandra, Rick and Vic arrived, leaving them towards the back of the crowd.

"When do you 'spose they'll start?" Rick asked.

"They said four, and this being the army, they like to be punctual." Sandra replied.

"This is a good bagel." Vic added, craning around to get a better look at the podium. The crowd was largely blocking their view, and Vic's height didn't help things.

Sandra peered around. A large, red-haired woman was standing in front of her, largely blocking her view. Tool. Well, no option but to be polite, she thought. Like that ever works for me. She tapped the woman on the shoulder. "Excuse me."

She turned around, and Sandra instantly recognised her. It was Anna, the Redhorn pilot she'd met in Lanard during the A-X attack. In person she looked a lot bigger then she did on the comms screen. She wasn't too much taller then Sandra (Who was pretty tall herself) but far broader and more muscular. The padded flak vest she was wearing didn't help matters. "Sorry." The woman began and then paused. "Do I know you?"

Sandra offered her hand. "Sandra Blackmore. We met in Lanard about two months ago when the place blew up."

Anna took her hand and shook it with a very strong grip. "Ah yes. I remember now." She smiled. "How have you been since then?"

Sandra decided that a detailed explanation would take to long. "Busy. Mercenary work and stuff."

"Likewise." Anna replied. "You new around here?"

"Actually, we have a house. We've been here since before this place got popular." Sandra explained. "We're thinking of moving once the property values skyrocket. We could get three credits for our place. Four even."

The humour seemed to be lost on Anna. "Do you have any idea what's going on here?" She asked.

"None at all. I'm hoping that this will provide some explanation." Sandra offered. "But somehow I doubt it."

A loud shout drowned out anything that Anna had to say in reply.

"Stuart!"

"Vic!"

Turning around, Sandra could see Vic with another pilot. He was of average height and build, with long black hair and a scruffy beard, and wore a black and red jumpsuit. For some reason, this was topped with a pair of tinted ski goggles that he had over his eyes. Sandra decided not to think why.

"How have you been?" Stuart shouted. "I mean, since the last time we met?"

"Oh, the usual." Vic replied. "Illegal Zoid battles, hanging out with weirdoes form the Dark Continent, eating bagels, blowing stuff up." She grinned "You?"

"Blowing stuff up!" He shouted back. "It's so cool!"

Anna sighed. "Sandra, this is my partner, Stuart Finaly. I do apologise, but he is always like this."

Sandra shook her head. "It's fine. Vic's always like that too." She looked around. "Sorry, where are my manners. The mad midget is Vic Hagen, and the guy looming behind me is Rick Mortis. They're my, uh, colleagues. Yeah."

"What she means is that we hang around her and blow stuff up along with her." Rick explained as he offered his hand. "Good to see you again."

"Thanks." Anna replied. "As I was just saying to Sandra, we're still trying to figure out what's going on."

"Yeah…" Rick said. "It's got us. Still, probably best not to worry." He smiled. "By the way, do you want to be in a comic book?"

"A what?" Anna asked, somewhat taken back.

"Here it comes." Sandra muttered, rolling her eye.

"Sorry. To explain, I'm writing a comic book based on my experiences as a mercenary here in the wastelands." He began. "All the characters will be based on real people I've met out here. So I was wondering if you'd like to be in it. You have a very distinctive look."

"I do?" Anna seemed to be taken back.

"Don't worry, he says that to all the striking redheads he meets." Sandra quietly added. Despite Ricks' claims, Sandra was convinced that a comic book appearance was not what Rose had wanted out of him. She really hoped it wasn't something else. At least Vic and Stuart were getting on, although that seemed to consist of the pair of them shouting excitedly at each other and making silly sound effects.

"Right." Anna muttered. "And I thought Stuart was weird."

"Is he always like that?"

Anna turned to look at him. He was currently gesturing wildly with his hands and shouting a lot. "Yes, yes he is."

"And, uh, what Zoid does he pilot?"

"A Dibison."

"My condolences." Sandra offered.

"Hey! Somebody's up there." A voice hissed through the crowd. As one, everyone turned towards the improvised stage. Sure enough, there were several people there. A tall, muscular blond-haired man stood at the podium, wearing a standard UZN uniform. Sandra could see form here that there was a livid scar across the side of his face. Clearly the boss-monkey, he thought. A soldier stood next to him, wearing a blue and purple uniform with a large, visored helmet and communicator harness. Behind them were several soldiers and…

Her heart skipped a beat. At the back was a short, slimly-built man with short, spiky black hair. He was wearing the standard uniform, topped off with a black jacket and what appeared to be a sword slung across his back in place of the usual firearm.

It can't be, can it? She thought.

"People of Bed Springs." The blond man began, speaking into a PA. Sandra snapped back to reality, glaring at him. She wanted to hear what he had to say.

"I am colonel Gunter Dezalg of the United Zoid Nations Armed Forces. We are presently in the process of an operation here in the Wastelands. Your cooperation is vital to the success of this operation."

Operation? Sandra thought. What kind of operation is it that needs them to seize control of every Zoid in this town? His doesn't sound right.

"For the moment, we have taken control of this town. Rest assured that this is only a temporary measure. This occupation will only last as long as it takes us to perform our duties here and leave. If you cooperate with us, this can be as quick and painless as possible."

Yeah, right. Sandra thought. There will be some excuse, some emergency, and then all of a sudden, this town will be under permanent lockdown.

"For the moment, however, we are in need of your assistance. We are currently running an investigation and will require the cooperation of all the mercenaries gathered in this town."

This bodes, Sandra thought. She looked around the rest of the crowd, and realised for the first time how many people were gathered here. Surely there can't be that many of us here, can there? She wondered. Maybe her peaceful little town had changed far more then she'd thought.

"To speed up our enquires, we will be asking you all to report to this town's arena. Once there, we can begin the process of organising our enquiries. I understand that this will be a temporary inconvenience, and I do apologize in advance for that. However, once we have done this, you will be free to return to your normal lives."

And I'm the Drakken Emperor, Sandra thought.

"How do you think he's going to get us to all report for questioning?" Rick asked.

"I think it has something to do with all the men with guns." Sandra replied.

-

Around the corner from the city square, a solitary figure lurked, glancing around the corner and clutching a package under his arm. He listened intently to the speech, taking it all in. It was far worse then he'd initially thought. The town was now locked down with no way out.

He glanced at the package. He needed to get this out now. If he didn't, then the consequences would be terrible.

-

One of the many structures that had been completed before the whole trans-wastelands rail project had collapsed was a central control land administration Centre. As Bed Springs was more or less at the middle of the proposed line, it was decided that it would be the centerpoint form which the Wastelands section of the maglev would be controlled.

Of course, the plan had fallen through and the building had been left largely abandoned. For the most part, Bed Springs' residents ignored it, seeing no use for it. Dezalg's command staff, however, had found that it was the perfect site to establish their command centre in. Until they felt confident in bringing their Whale King into town, all operations would be run from here.

Dezalg entered the command centre at the top of the building. From here, operators would have been monitoring the entire rail network. Instead, now his technicians were monitoring the town and supervising their operations. Sgt Bob, his aide and chief comms technician, followed him.

"What's our status, man?" He asked, brushing past several technicians before arriving at his central control table. At the moment it was displaying a top-down map of the town, various icons pointing out the locations of his troops and known mercenary Zoids in the city.

"We've got the town under a secure lockdown." Bob replied, pressing a few buttons on a hand-held computer. "Every Zoid hanger that Intel located has been confirmed and secured. We're beginning the inventory now, but it's going to be hard to tally up everything. Ideally, we'll have to begin interviews with the mercenaries themselves tomorrow so we can begin to get more information."

"And you've marked Gravity Zoids and Attack Zoids for priority right?"

"Yes sir." Bob replied, looking over the map. "As I said, we're still compiling lists at the moment, so we'll have to see what we turn up."

"Good." He studied the map. "This town could be hard to defend if we're attacked. I want Remmon to redeploy his forces around the perimeter of the town to provide fire support for the sentries already posted."

"I'll get on it right away." Bob replied. "One thing, sir. We found a trio of prisoners languishing in the sheriff's office. Apparently they'd been there for three months on charges of…" he blipped down the screen. "Destruction of private property, destruction of public property, dangerous driving, discharging Zoid-mounted weaponry within city limits, kidnapping, arson, assault with a blunt weapon and littering."

"Any idea who they are?"

"We're trying to find out now. The sheriff's office didn't give too many particulars beyond the charges."

"I see." Dezalg finished. "Move them up to the top of the list for questioning."

"Yes sir."

"Oh, and Bob, one other thing."

"Sir?"

"I'm putting you in charge of the camp tonight. Make sure that nothing happens."

"Yes sir." He replied, nervously. For some reason, a voice at the back of his head told him that something was going to happen, and that he would be stuck in the middle of it.

-

Since the influx of mercenaries into the town, and it finding a lot more use, some effort had been made to clean up the Arena of Sport. The bits of Zoid wreckage that had littered the arena's floor for so long had been dragged away and cleaned up, leaving the area itself as a wide, open flat battle field. Some effort had been put into restoring the crumbling structure of the arena, and there had even been talk of providing the audience with some protection form stray weapons fire.

Dezalg's crew had made a number of additional changes in the last few hours. The most obvious one was the addition of a large tarpaulin over the entire arena. Supported by a number of poles like a giant circus tent, it effectively provided a roof for the arena. Two portable toilet and shower blocks had been set up in the middle of the floor to provide something resembling basic facilities.

The rest of the floor was covered in row after row of sleeping bags. "How thoughtful." Sandra muttered as she entered, hefting a tote bag over her shoulder. She, like everyone else, had been allowed to collect clothing from her house before reporting for 'temporary internment' pending her 'assisting enquires' by Dezalg's troops. She could tell that this was going to go well.

"It's not so bad." Rick replied as he entered. Rick had been allowed to stuff his folder and some pencils in along with his clothing. She also suspected he had at least two of his CD backups of his work on hand in case of disasters. Or, she suspected, to impress potential employers with.

"Rick, you would look on the bright side of a train wreck." She replied.

"Modernist fiction." Vic replied. "Authors who invent new words to describe their materials when all they're trying to say is that it's poo."

"Anyway, it's got a certain atmosphere to it." He continued.

"That's probably the toilet block." Sandra muttered.

"Millenialist fiction." Vic continued. "Told you."

"Naw, it's a kind of rugged minimalism. Mankind much closer to the world, stripped bare of the comforts of everyday life."

"Whatever you say." Sandra muttered. "I'm going to find us a bunch of bags in a group before they're all taken."

"Over here!" She heard Anna shouting. Turning around, Sandra saw that she was standing by a bunch of bags, a large backpack by her foot. "There's a whole bunch over here that's free if you want them."

"Thanks!" Sandra shouted back. "Come on, guys, I think we've found our accommodation."

-

Far form the town, a lone Zoid waited on top of a cliff. Its pilot sat in he cockpit, monitoring the various displays. None of them showed anything, which was beginning to annoy her. She'd been waiting here for quite some time, and was quickly growing impatient.

The communicator bleeped. She considered leaving the other end hanging for a while. After all, since she'd been waiting for him for so long, then he should have to wait for her. After about thirty seconds, she shrugged and then picked it up. "What is it?" She demanded. "You've been keeping me waiting or far to long."

"Sorry about that." The voice on the other end hissed back. "There's been some complications."

"Like what?" She replied, casually.

"Like a whole bunch of soldiers taking over the town and locking it down tighter then..." He trailed off.

"Tighter then?" She asked.

"Never mind." He hissed. "Anyway, I need to get out of here. I can't do it on my own, however."

"So you want me to come and bail you out." She replied, yawning. "Do you have the item?"

"Yeah, I got it."

"Good." She stated. "I'm going to cause a distraction. I want you to high-tail it out of there as soon as you can. I'll join you afterwards."

"Thanks boss." He said and closed the connection.

The Zoid's pilot sighed as she closed the canopy. The things I have to do, she began. Still, can't be helped. With a roar of jet turbines, the huge winged Zoid leaped into the night sky, soaring across the desert landscape.

-

After staking out their territory, Sandra, Rick and Vic had set up camp. Vic had vowed to fight to the death to protect her beloved patch of dirt. (The main reason being that it was far enough from the toilets to be comfortable, but not enough to be a problem in an emergency. Either that or she was just being her usual lunatic self. It was hard to tell) Sandra had instead decided to wander around and try to get a better idea of what was going on.

Most of the pilots here were unfamiliar faces to her. Some of them were people she'd seen in passing going to or from one job or another, or around the various towns where people in her line of work congregated. She had a sneaking suspicion that some people here had no desire to be near some of their fellow imamates, and that violence was about to ensue.

She recognised one man, setting up his stuff on the fringes of the floor. Of average height but a muscular build, he had short brown hair and a scruffy beard. She knew this guy, having worked with him in past. Great, this must be my day for running into old acquaintances, she mentally added.

Stepping through the crowds, she walked over to where he was setting up his gar. "Felix." She began, looking down at him while he unpacked his bag. "Good to see you again."

He turned towards her. "Oh, hi there, Sandra." He replied and then turned back to unpacking.

"Good to see you too." She muttered, before continuing in a more normal tone of voice. "How have you been?"

"Working." He replied. "Tromping through the desert and getting shot up. The usual."

And now I remember why I used to like him, she thought. And why I don't any more. "Same here." She replied. "Had some wild and crazy times of late, but for the most part the same old crap."

"Oh." He muttered.

"You working with anyone at the moment?" She asked.

"No." He replied. "You?"

Something resembling a response. Amazing. "I've got a couple of guys with me now. They're good people. Certainly not antisocial jerks."

"Hmph." He grunted. "Your point being?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to join us in our little camp-out over round the other side." She replied. "Or you could stay being a grumpy old tool on your own."

He looked up at her. "And why should I?"

And now to drop the big one. "Look, this Dezalg guy has com to this town looking for something, and he's probably not going not be happy until he's turned over every rock in this town to find it. I suspect that their 'investigations' are going to consist of a lot of harsh questions. And when they get around to you, there could be some problems if certain things come up."

He stood. "Good point. So what are you going to do about it?"

"Well, I've been mulling over some ideas to get us all out of here. I don't want to spread it around yet. But I do want to talk to some other people. And you're an expert in escapes."

"Don't remind me." He muttered. "Okay, I'll help you."

"Great. Get your stuff together and I'll introduce you to the others."

Within a few minutes, they were back around with the rest of the group. Nobody had killed anybody else in the last few minutes, which to Sandra was always a good sign. Maybe they could pull this off after all, she thought. "Guys, I want you to met an old associate of mine." She began. "This is Felix Stratton. I've worked with him before, and I think he could be of some help in our current situation." There was a round of nods from the various gathered pilots.

"Felix, these are my associates, Rick Mortis and Vic Hagen." She indicated to the pair of them. Vic grinned in that way that made her look like she was about to bite. So much for getting things off to a good start. "And this is Anna Conda and Stuart Finlay."

"We've met." Felix replied. "Stuart and I already know each other."

"We do?" Stuart replied, looking confused. "Oh yeah! We do!" He leaped to his feet. "Felix ol' buddy! Haven't seen you in forever! How are you going?"

"Pretty good, given that you nearly blew me up." He snarled in reply, and spat on the ground in front of Stuart.

"Aww… come on buddy. That was an accident, and it was ages ago. What's a few explosions between friends?" Stuart replied enthusiastically.

This was going to go well, Sandra thought.

"So how are you goin' Felix?" Rick asked.

"I've been herded into a detention centre by heavily armed troops and forced to share my space with people I'd rather avoid. How do you think I'm going?" He snarled in reply.

"Wow, Sandra, he's just like you." Rick replied. "You two must have gotten along well."

"Veeeeeeerrrrrrry well." Vic slurred.

Sandra wanted to scream. Instead, she tried to get things back on topic. She sat, and gestured for Felix to do the same. "Felix is something of an expert on escapes." She explained. "He's made a few spectacular ones in his time. I was hoping he could help us out here."

Felix sat and looked around. "Right." He began. "What you've got here is a small number of heavily armed goons trying to maintain control of a large number of people. For the moment, they've got guns and the high ground."

"So we're outgunned by an enemy with a superior position." Anna offered. "And we can't just run at them, obviously."

"That's the thing." Felix continued. "There's a small number of them and a lot of us. What we need is something big. A distraction, one that's big enough to throw the whole place into chaos. The small number of troops here couldn't keep order if something like that happened."

"So what could cause that kind of a distraction?" Rick asked.

"You idiot!" A female voice shouted from nearby. Before anyone could respond, a man collapsed backwards into the middle of their group, falling flat on his back. He was of average height and a thin build, with long brown hair and handsome features that were somewhat marred by a bloody nose.

"Nice timing." Vic muttered.

The man sprang to his feet, clutching his nose. "What was that for?" he shouted.

"That was for staring at me like that, you moron!" The voice shouted. All heads turned to see a woman standing nearby, clearly the source of the nose-breaking. Of average height and build, she had long hair of a very unnatural red tint and would probably be attractive if she wasn't shouting.

"Hey, there's another scary red-head for your collection, Rick." Sandra said, smirking.

"Wha?"

"Okay you two, settle down." A man stepped between the pair of them. Sandra could only describe him as average-looking. Short brown hair, brown eyes, rather nondescript face. She'd never pick him out in a crowd. The man must be an identikit nightmare.

"He started it!" the woman screamed.

"I did not!" the man with the bloody nose replied. "I just said that I liked the colour of your underwear."

"While I was bending over?" She shouted. "I ought to break your stupid neck!"

"I do apologise for all this." The man continued.

"You're okay. It's fun." Vic replied, smiling. "Spectator sport."

"Are they always like this, or only when there are others around?" Sandra asked. Rick, she noticed, was scribbling away on his pad.

"Sorry, where are my manners." He offered Sandra his hand. "I'm Ryan. These are my associates, Rand Cadfael and Tyesha."

"Sandra Blackmore." Sandra replied. Finally, somebody in this camp with something resembling manners, she mentally added.

Ryan stepped closer to the group, leaving Tyesha to murder Rand behind him. "I know it's not my place, but I couldn't help but overhear you talking." He began in a conspiratorial whisper. "Specifically about leaving this place."

Anna and Sandra glanced at each other. "Go on." Anna said, warily.

"I'm something of an expert in this sort of thing, as are my two associates, appearances to the contrary." Behind him, Tyesha was straddling a prone Rand and throttling him. "When they need to, those two can be both silent and capable."

Sandra raised her brow. "I'll believe that when I see it."

"I say we give them a chance." Anna said. "He already knows what we're up to. I can't see much point in leaving him out of things now."

Sandra shot a glance at Felix. "I don't trust 'em." He replied, and spat on the ground near Ryan's feet. "But I can't see that we have a choice."

"Thanks for that." Ryan said as he took a place on the ground next to Rick. "I think we can make this work out."

"Welcome to the conspiracy, bud." Rick said, offering him a hand. "Rick R. Mortis. I used to draw comics."

"And they locked you up here for that?" Ryan asked.

"Amazing." Vic muttered. "And you've never read any of his books."

"I see." Ryan replied. "I don't believe we've had the pleasure miss..."

Sandra shook her head. This would not end well.

-

Air defence picked up the Zoid as it approached the city. Its pilot wasn't even bothering with subtlety, instead coming in high and fast overhead. After it failed to respond to warnings, a pair of Pteras were dispatched to intercept it and force it down.

The pilot didn't waste any time. No sooner were the two Zoids airborne then she was onto them. Her Zoid dived straight at them, picking up speed as it went. Realising that it was probably hostile and dangerous, the two Pteras pilots opened fire. The enemy pilot, however, proved to be more then a match for them. Evading their fire, it passed between the pair of them at twice the speed of sound.

There was a screech of tearing metal, and suddenly both Pteras pilots found that their Zoids were missing a wing. Both bailed out, but not before one of them had a good look at the attacking Zoid.

It was a Storm Sworder, a high-performance aerial Zoid that easily left their Pteras for dead. Pausing only to check that its two would-be attackers were out of action, the Zoid turned towards the town.

The warning went around that a lone airborne was heading for the town in some sort of crazy one-man attack. Additional Pteras units were launched, with explicit orders to bring down the enemy Zoid at all costs. They didn't have the time to try to figure out what it was up to; their positions in the town itself were still being fortified, and they could ill-afford an attack on any of them.

Spotting the incoming Pteras squad, the pilot grinned to herself. Well, he wanted a distraction, she thought. Let's give him and everyone else in this town something to look at.

The Storm Sworder swooped down low, dropping down to near street level, passing through the town like it was a blur, before suddenly pulling up into a vertical climb. The Pteras Squadron climbed to follow it, desperately trying to engage it before it could mount an actual attack. Kicking the throttle all the way open, the pilot watched and laughed as her Zoid climbed away form its pursuers, leaving them behind.

Well, at least for only a few moments. The Storm Sworder looped and came diving back towards the Pterases. Knowing full well what it could do, the four smaller Zoids scattered rather then risk being sliced up by the larger Zoid. Not bothering to pursue any of them, the Sworder dived back to wards the town, this time aiming at the large tower near one of the rail bridges.

The town's defenders were clearly aware of her now. All around the town, numerous Zoids opened fire, filling the air around her with energy beams, missiles and bursting shells. All but ignoring them, the Zoid continued its dive before levelling out at the last minute. Speeding low over the town, it ducked under the rail bridge, banked and turned straight for the arena on the far side.

Most of its pursuers had broken off, loitering above to see what was happening, probably not brave enough to follow the Storm Sworder's manic path across the rooftops. One of them, however, had followed her, albeit from a slightly higher altitude.

"I hope you're watching closely." She said to herself. "Because this is going to be good."

Speeding up, the Storm Sworder sped straight at the arena, shots going off all around it. As she passed overhead, the pilot yanked the control stick back, pulling the Zoid into a steep dive. The shockwave of its passing was enough to lift up the canopy erected over the arena and send it flying over town.

The pilot looked back over her shoulder and laughed. Those silly little fools down there couldn't even hope to touch her. Flicking on the communicator, she signalled her partner. "I've got them completely tied up. Make your move."

"Thanks boss." He replied.

Across the other side of town, a shape moved in one of the garbage piles. Junk and debris slid aside as the sleek, dark form of a Sinker emerged from a mount of garbage. After furtively checking that nobody was watching him, the pilot accelerated his Zoid out of town.

-

There was a deafening sonic boom that seemed to shake the entire arena to its foundations. As Sandra watched, the huge canopy lifted away, snaring men, sleeping bags, parts of the arena and at least one portable toilet as it went. Before anyone could do anything about it, it had blown out across the town.

Sandra glanced up at the soldiers on the rim. Several had been flattened by the passing canopy, while the rest seemed to be stunned by what had just happened. At least one seemed to have been carried off by it. She turned to Felix. "You wanted a distraction?" She began. "How about that one?"

-


	43. Soccer Riot

Outside Bed Springs

The Wastelands

2100 Hours

The two Zoids came to rest on the top of a mesa well outside of the town. No sooner was she down then the Storm Sworder pilot opened her cockpit and angrily stalked over to the Sinker.

"You!" Reven shouted. "Out of there! Now!"

The Sinker's cockpit opened, with Z-One climbing out, a package in his hand. He walked over to Reven. "Sorry about that, Boss." He looked down sheepishly, although it could have been just an effort to stare down the unzipped front of her form-fitting flightsuit at her ample cleavage.

"You had better be." She snarled. "Do you have it?"

"Yes boss." He replied, and handed her the package.

"Good." She replied. "You were careful with it?"

Z-One rolled his eyes, and resumed his staring down her top. "Yes boss."

She carefully unwrapped the package. Inside was a neatly folded jacket. Reven slowly unfolded it, and held it up in front of her, eyeing it carefully. "It's a good thing you bought this back in one piece." She said. "The collar is genuine albino weasel fur. Can you imagine how much it cost the person I stole it off?"

"No boss." He muttered. Fine, he mentally added. Next time you pick up your own damned dry-cleaning. Why do I put up with her, he asked himself for about the millionth time. Then he saw the way her flightsuit stretched as she put the jacket on. Oh yeah. That's why. "What should we do about the soldiers down in the town?" He asked.

"Why do anything?" he replied, as she inspected the collar on the jacket.

"Well, they seem to have locked up all the mercenaries in the town for starters." He said.

"Well that just means there's going to be a labour shortage, which will create more work opportunities for us." She replied.

Z-One shrugged. You couldn't argue with logic like that.

-

Sgt Bob picked himself up from the ground, having barely avoided being flattened by the tarpaulin. "What the hell just happened?" he shouted to nobody in particular. One minute he'd been watching the prisoners. The next minute there was the sound of weapons fire from all around – and not just small arms. It sounded like Zoid-mounted stuff.

Then there was a sonic boom and the tarp went flying. And that's when the crap hit the fan.

Ned thing he knew, the detainees were either fleeing the arena by whatever means possible or climbing up into the arena stands and attacking his men. And while his men had better weapons, they had the advantage of surprise and sheer numbers.

He activated his helmet mike. "This is Sgt Bob to command! Come in command!"

"This is command here." A female technician replied. "How may I assist you?"

"I need to speak to the Colonel now!" He shouted. "The prisoners are-"

Before he could finish, someone laid him out with a blow to the back of his head. Despite his helmet, he slumped to the ground, unconscious. The woman who struck him leaned down and picked up his mike. Now for some fun.

-

"Sargent Bob?" The technician began. "Sargent Bob? Are you there?"

"What's happening over there, Starling?" Dezalg shouted. All around him, the command centre was in disarray. The Storm Sworder's dive had sent everyone scurrying for cover and while it hadn't actually attacked, the sonic boom had shattered just about every window in the place. Now the town itself seemed to be under attack.

"It's Sargent Bob over at the detention facility, sir." Starling replied. "I'm not sure what he's saying. I think he was cut off."

"Well get back to him immediately!" Dezalg snapped. We may be under attack! I need to know what's happening out there!"

"Just a second…" Starling said and held up a hand. "I'm getting something. Hold on."

"Hello?" Came a female voice on the other end of the line. "Hey. Anyone there? This thing working? Helooooo?"

"Who is this?" Starling asked. "What's happening there?"

"We have a situation." The voice replied. "I need a bagel."

Starling paused. "A what?"

"A bagel." The female voice replied. "With creamy cheese. And the cheese and the cream. And the cheesy cheesy creamy cheesy." She added. "Cheesy cheesy."

Starling blinked. Dezalg stared at her angrily. "What the hell is going on there, Soldier?" he asked.

"Um…" She replied, hesitantly. "Somebody there needs a bagel."

"A what?"

"You know… a bread bun kind of a thing. With cream cheese on it, apparently."

Dezalg blinked. "What the hell are you doing there, soldier!" He snapped. "Find out what's happening there now! Get whoever it is off the line or else find me another technician who knows what the hell it is that they're talking about!"

Starling stood there. If Dezalg could have seen through her comms visor, he'd have seen that she was blinking in confusion. "What was that, sir?"

"Now, soldier!" He snapped.

-

Most of those who had escaped from the Arena had scattered to the four winds, desperately running after their own Zoids and whatever else they could get that wasn't nailed down. A few, however, had stayed together and not gone for the obvious choice.

Sandra peered around the corner of the building at the command centre. There were still a few soldiers around it, but an awful lot less then there used to be. She turned back and looked around the group, doing a quick headcount. Everyone seemed to be here. Good. Now for part two of her plan.

"Okay, here's the plan." She muttered. "Rick, Vic, Rand, Stuart and Tyesha, I want you guys to get your Zoids and run around town, making as much noise as possible. Everyone else, I want you to round us up supplies. Find us a few friendly Gustav drivers if you can, but apply a little frelling pressure if you need to." She looked over the group. "Think you can manage that?"

"I can make lots of noise!" Stuart said, excitedly. "Point me at those guys and… BANG! POW! BLAM! All the noise you could want, baby!"

"Cool!" Vic squealed in a girlish way. "I like stuff that blows up!"

Sandra sighed. Why did she get all the morons? Why did they all seem to congregate around here? Why couldn't she ever meet somebody normal?

"So what are you up to, Sandra?" Felix asked. "You're handing out orders, but I don't hear your name amongst them."

"I'm going into their HQ." She replied, glancing around the corner again. "I want to see if I can get more info. Who these tools are, where they're from, what they're after, troop strength… all that kind of axminster."

"Let me go with you." Ryan interrupted. "I'm good at getting into and out of places. Especially well-guarded ones"

Sandra gave him the once over. He'd so far proved to be useful, and she had no reason not to trust him. Maybe she was just being paranoid. "Right." She said. "Let's go."

"Should we look for you?" Anna asked.

Sandra looked around the group. "No, I think I'll be able to find you myself when I'm done."

-

Things had settled to a certain degree in the command centre. This was a god thing, as it appeared that the rest of the town was going to pot around them. Bob had managed to make it back there in one piece. When he found that the Colonel was waiting for him, he began to wonder if that was necessarily a good thing.

"So explain to me exactly what happened." Dezalg began, slowly.

Bob swallowed before he began his explanation. "Well, there was a loud boom, followed by the canopy over the arena ripping free. It was very confusing, sir, as there was stuff flying everywhere. People, sleeping bags, chunks of the arena, toilets… all that sort of stuff."

"Go on." Dezalg said.

"I got hit by the tarpaulin and flattened, sir." He began. Not the whole truth, but close enough. It would make him sound a little better. "When I regained my senses, I saw that the detainees were rioting. A number of them attacked my men, many of whom had already suffered injuries from the canopy breaking free. I was knocked out by one of them."

"Who took your communications headset." He continued.

"Yes sir." He replied. "By the time I came to, they had, for the most part, escaped."

"I see." Dezalg said. "This was supposed to be a simple operation, Sargent. Now, however, I fear that it has become incredibly complicated."

"Yes sir." He replied, nervously.

"I want you to get out there and begin a sweep of the town. Round up all the escapees and any Zoids that they may have access to. You are to coordinate this. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

"I am putting a lot of faith in you, sergeant. Don't let me down."

"I wo-" he began, but was cut off by the roar of a loud explosion from outside. The lights in the building flickered. "What was that?"

"I think-" Dezalg began, but a second explosion cut him off. All the power in the building went off at once, leaving them, and everyone else inside the command centre, in the dark.

"What's happening?"

Starling ran over to him. "We've lost all power, sir." She replied.

He turned to face her. "I know that. I mean, what caused it?"

"There were two explosions, sir."

He paused. This was not going to be easy "I mean, what cause the explosions?"

"I don't know, sir." She replied.

"Well find out then!" He snapped. "Now!"

"Yes sir!" She saluted, then left the room.

He turned back to Bob. "Call Kavirov. Have her call of her pursuit of the enemy Storm Sworder and return to town. We may need her here and now."

-

"Ooooooooh yeah!" Stuart shouted as he looked through his targeting goggles at the burning wreckage of the generators. "That's crispy fried critter all right!"

His Dibison grunted as if it was approving of the destruction. The generators had only been guarded by a few rather scared looking foot troopers. Now they were running for their lives. Heh, that had been cool. Nothing like the sight of two hundred tons of angry metal bearing down on somebody to put the fear of Tomy into them!

"Hey Anna!" He shouted into the communicator. "I broke the generators like you said! What now?"

Anna sighed. "I've secured the Gunatorium." She replied, referring to one of Bed Springs' biggest weapons dealers. "Rick's off scaring us up a Gustav now."

"Cool beans!" Stuart shouted. "Make sure you get me lots of ammo, kay?"

"I will." She replied, and rolled her eyes. "Say, Stuart, Is Vic with you?"

He looked around, his Dibison mimicking his movements and shaking its head side to side. "No sign of her. Why do you ask?"

"Rick hasn't seen her either."

"Well, I'm sure she can look after herself." Stuart replied. "It's no biggie."

For some reason, Anna didn't seem convinced. "I suppose so."

"'sides, I've got everything well under control here."

"Right." Anna replied. "Stand your ground for the moment. But if you're in trouble, don't hesitate to withdraw."

"I'm in a big mad cow!" He shouted. "Nothing's gonna take me out!" As if to emphasise the point, the Dibison bellowed.

"Whatever" Anna sighed and closed the connection.

"Ha!" Stuart shouted. "That's right! Y'all better not mess with the man and the cow! Otherwise it's boom, baby! BOOM!"

-

Anna sat inside her Redhorn's cockpit an angry look on her face that almost mirrored the permanent scowl moulded into the Zoid's face. Near her, a pair of grey and silver Gustavs worked to load ammunition and supplies onto their trailers. The security guards around the site had scurried the instant they saw her coming. She didn't blame them.

The whole situation didn't sit well with her. Like Sandra, she prided herself on being a fundamentally 'good' person; she wouldn't take contracts from people she knew were dodgy or outlined very morally dubious objectives, like blowing up small villages. Stuart rarely had such issues, which meant that she often had to point him in the metaphorical right direction.

For all she knew, the military could have been here on a legitimate operation. On the other hand, their detention of everyone in the town and confiscation of their Zoids was definitely infringing on their rights. And they had been far from cooperative with what they were doing.

Her only hope was that she wouldn't have to hurt someone unnecessarily. Of course, with people like Stuart around, that seemed to be inevitable. Hopefully the very sight of her Redhorn should be enough to deter the few Godos that she knew were on duty at the moment. Even the most enthusiastic Godos pilot would feel a little wary about attacking a Zoid so much larger and more powerful then it.

She watched the two Gustavs, wishing they would hurry up. The sooner they were out of here, the less chance there was of someone getting hurt.

-

Like so many other Zoid hangers in the town, this one was little more then a free-standing tin shed that had been equipped with minimal access and maintenance facilities. That also meant that its security systems were limited to a lock on the door. The military had beefed up defences with the addition of a pair of troops at the front door, but that was the limit of things.

Rand and Tyesha stood on the roof of a nearby building, looking down at the shed. "Two guards by the door." Rand said, quietly. "No sign of anyone else or any other obvious security."

"I can see that, you moron." Tyesha hissed.

"Right." Rand said, ignoring her reaction. "I'll go in first, then open the door and let you in."

"Whatever." She replied. "Just as long as I get to break something soon. I'm bored."

Rand ignored her and pulled out his bow. Unlike most people who used guns, he preferred the simple style and elegance of more archaic weapons. Besides, he could do far more with a bow then he could with a gun. This was one of those cases. He picked out a particular arrow from his collection. This one was attached to a high-tensile rope that in turn ended in a winder.

Sighting the roof of the she, he drew back the arrow then released. The arrow stuck fast into the roof of the shed. Getting the winder out form his equipment sack, Rand secured it to the side of the building he was standing on. Giving it a few experimental tugs, he found that it was secure at both ends and should take his weight.

Taking a hold of the rope in both hands, he slowly bought his legs up and wrapped them around the rope. Looking down at the hanger, he slowly made his way down the line. After several long minutes, he reached the hanger. Being careful not to disturb the arrow or to make any noise, he swung down and placed his feet on the roof. Letting go of the rope, he looked around.

No sign of any movement. Good.

Some thoughtful designer had given the shed a skylight to allow light in to the shed during the day, and also to open if it got too hot. It also allowed people to get into the hanger through the roof if they wanted. People like Rand.

He opened the skylight and soundlessly dropped into the hanger, landing on one of the maintenance catwalks. It was gloomy in here, but not to dark that he couldn't see a thing. Looking around he could see their three Zoids; his shiny new Snipe Master, Ryan's Helcat and Tyesha's rather battered Hammerock.

Soundlessly, he worked his way down to the floor of the hanger. Glancing around, he could see that the place was empty, the front door still shut. He tapped his communicator. "Tyesha, I'm in. Where are you?"

"Right behind you, jackarse." She replied. Rand spun around to see Tyesha standing there, a filthy look on her face. A pair of soldiers were lying in a heap on the floor, both clearly unconscious. "What took you so long?"

"I…" Rand stammered. "I came in through the roof. How did you get in?"

"I slugged out both guards and took their keys." She replied. "You are such a joke, Rand."

"Wha?" He said.

"Now get in your Zoid and get going." She replied. "I haven't killed anything in ages and I'm in a mean mood."

-

For not the first time, Sandra was glad that most of the people she knew were triggerhappy hoons. Outside, everyone was running around, blowing stuff up and making as much noise as they could. Most everyone had left the command centre to deal with the rampaging Zoids outside, which meant that they weren't in here.

She and Ryan lurked outside a doorway, weapons in hand. There was a single, unsuspecting technician inside, pouring over a desktop computer. All the other stations looked to have been abandoned. Sandra personally suspected that they no longer felt that the site was secure, especially with the loss of power. In all likelihood they were going to move as much as possible to somewhere else, which meant that they didn't have much time to act.

"Right." She muttered. "I'll take this tool. You sweep the rest of the floor, see if there's anyone else around." She figured that Ryan was probably quieter then she was. Probably only Stuart could be too much noisier then her when angered.

Ryan nodded.

"Right." She muttered. Nodding to Ryan, she ducked into the room, gun in hand. Before the technician knew it, she was on him, bashing his head into the table and laying him out on the floor. Probably messier then she could have been, but she didn't care. She had some anger to work out.

There were a number of data disks on the table, as well as another one that was writing in the computer. Storing info, she wondered, or dumping it so they can go in a hurry? She suspected the latter. Grabbing a few of the disks, she stuffed them into the ample pockets of her coat. The one in there could wait. She just had to assume that they'd gone for the most important data first.

Oh well, time to get going, she thought. No sense in hanging around now. She ducked back out into the hallway. Glancing around, she could see no sign of Ryan. Tool, she thought. This is not good. Where had he gotten to? A part of her wanted to think that he was just somewhere else in the building. Another part of her thought that the little tool had probably just grabbed what he wanted and run off.

She cautiously moved out into the hallway, gun in hand. This was all about to go bad, she could tell. The only question was exactly how bad it would go, and if she would be there when it happened.

There was a noise behind her, an ever-so-quiet sound of someone moving. They were doing well at avoiding being heard, but not quite good enough. She spun around, arm outstretched, gun in hand.

Only to end up facing the barrel of another pistol. A pistol held by the spikey haired man from before, who was no longer wearing his shades, instead revealing a pair of narrow brown eyes.

"Oh." She began. "Its you."

-

The west side of the command centre had suffered rather badly from Stuart's attack. As he had no concept of 'overkill' he'd fed the generators two megolomax bursts from the Dibison's back cannon array, when only a single one would have easily taken it out. As a result, he had not only taken out the generators but he had also taken out a good portion of wall with it.

This made Vic's entry a lot easier. She'd originally planned to slip in through a side window that hade been blown out by the Storm Sworder's pass. Instead she just casually stepped through a hole in the wall. Silly Stuart, she thought. He was very fun to work with, though. Sandra could be such a nag at times… Always 'Vic don't blow that up' or 'Vic don't do that' or other such things. But Stuart was fun. Good thing she had been there to be the brains of their outfit, though.

She casually wondered how Stuart and Anna got along. She suspected that Anna served as a thinking brain and pointed him in the direction of whatever he needed to blow up. And she was big and scary enough to pull it off. Not big like Sandra was tall, but big as in big and terrifying and solid.

She casually bought her mind back to the situation at hand. Sandra had told her to go blow stuff up. That was cool, but she instead wanted to do something different. Blowing stuff up was good for the everyday, but now she wanted to get out and live a little. So she decided that now was the time to sneak into the command centre and see what she could find. Besides which, if Sandra and Ryan got to do it, why not her?

Vic had visited the old rail control centre on a few occasions. She and Rick had played at least one round of mudgun skirmish in there, which had gone pretty well, especially after she hauled off and unloaded seven or eight rounds into his chest at point-blank range. She also liked to climb up to the top of the tower as it was one of the highest points in the town. She liked to watch the people scurrying around below. Just for the view, of course.

Well, enough of being retrospective. Time for some work.

She ducked inside a corridor. The lack of power had left it dark and silent, and the devastation wrought by Stuart's attack hadn't helped things at all. That didn't bother Vic. She liked it in the dark. She could move silently, and remain hidden. She'd heard from Sandra and Rick about the genetic modifications made to those Blackstar people. She'd figured from what they'd said that they had very good eyesight, possibly even good low-light vision. Now that would be fun, she thought.

Which means that she was really upset when someone grabbed her form behind.

Why didn't I hear them coming, she wondered as her assailant wrapped an arm around her neck. Classic restraint tactics. They're trying to capture me, not kill me. Could be an advantage.

"This is Starling!" A female voice shouted near her ear. "I've got an intruder in B-Block. Young male, probably an escapee from the detention centre!"

Young male? Vic asked herself. Someone's either stupid or blind. Or both. Yeah. Probably both. She grabbed her assailant's arm, only to have the other one come around and grab her by the wais.

Well this wasn't working. So she bit her attacker.

The woman yelped with pain. Vic jerked her head backwards, smashing with a satisfying thumping sound into the opponent's face. Surprised, her opponent lost their grip and fell backwards.

Vic turned to face her opponent. It was a communications tech, a young woman with brown hair and a rather bruised looking nose that she was clutching. She couldn't believe that a lowly comms tech had snuck up on her. Time to fix this situation.

"Round two!" She shouted. "Fight!"

-

After checking that he was alone in the hanger, Felix climbed up into the cockpit of his Black Rhimos. About the same size as Rick's command wolf, the Zoid was far more solidly built and was often considered to be a miniature Redhorn. That was certainly the way Felix saw his particular Zoid.

He checked over the systems as he powered them up. Everything showed up as green, which indicated that the military hadn't done anything to disable his Zoid. Maybe they were going to hand them back to us, he thought. Either that or use them for their own forces.

Well, they're not getting their hands on this one, he thought. Lowering the Rhimos' head, he activated its horn drill. Now to get out of here.

The Zoid lurched into a run, smashing straight into the front door of the hanger. The door offered no resistance to the sixty-ton Zoid smashing into it, and simply disintegrated into a pile of metal sheets. The two guards decided to not even bother with fighting back and simply ran.

"Off to a good start." He muttered. The Rhimos snorted as he turned it towards the outside of the town. "Now to get out of here while the getting's good."

His plan had been simply to get the hell out of dodge as soon as possible. Of all the escapees, as far as he could tell only this small group were interested in fighting in some sort of organised force. Everyone else just wanted to escape. That seemed to him to be the wisest choice about now.

Unfortunately, he could see that there were people with other ideas.

A grey Command Wolf stepped around a corner into the street ahead of him. Felix stopped the Zoid, staring at the new arrival. The pilot of the wolf had an advantage, he instantly realised. The military knew what Zoid was on which side. He didn't.

"Hold it right there!" the Wolf pilot shouted.

"Definitely hostile", Felix muttered to himself. Time to get out of here. He threw the Rhimos' throttle open, charging straight at the enemy Zoid. The Wolf broke into a run, using its superior speed to attempt an escape. He opened fire, one of his heavy cannons hitting the wolf soundly in the side, staggering it.

The enemy pilot managed to keep his machine upright, veering it off to one side before opening fire with the back-mounted canon turret. Both beams hit, but did little damage to the Rhimos's dense back armour.

"Weak guns." Felix muttered. The normal model of Command Wolf was considered to be somewhat underarmed by many. Unfortunately for Felix, it was also a lot faster and more agile then his Zoid was. Also its main guns were turreted, whereas his were fixed pointing straight forwards. He slewed the Rhimos around in a desperate effort to bring his guns to bear on the enemy Zoid.

His two main cannons fired again. One of the shots went wide, blasting a storefront to pieces. The second slammed into one of the wolf's weakly-armoured hind legs, snapping it off below the knee. The Zoid yelped and collapsed, skidding across the street. Continuing his attack run, Felix slammed the Rhimos' drill horn into the Wolf's side, digging it into the Zoid's exposed underbelly before ripping it free.

The Wolf remained motionless. Convinced that it was no longer a threat, Felix turned back to his original course. Unfortunately, there was another Command Wolf in his way. This one was different to the last one. It was shiny blue and black, with a large twin-barrelled cannon replacing the normal turret.

"Get out of my way!" He snarled.

"Hang on a sec!" The Wolf's pilot replied. 'I'm on your side, buddy."

He recognised the voice. "Rick?" Sandra's second. It'd look real bad if he blew the kid up.

"Yeah…" He replied. "That you, Felix? Sandra said that you piloted a Rhino."

"Yeah, it's me." He muttered. Great, there would be no getting away from Rick. "Where's everyone else."

"I was supposed to be gathering ammo." Rick said. "But I kind of got lost."

"Me too." Felix replied. Not entirely a lie, but close enough.

"We probably should find the others." Rick spoke up. "See if we can get somewhere with the whole ammo loading situation."

"It's gonna be hard to find them." Felix added. "Especially with the army running around."

"I'm sure we can figure something out." Rick replied.

The two Zoids turned back towards the centre of the city. Felix noted that Rick was behind him. It could be so he can provide cover fire while I charge, Felix thought. Or it could be because Sandra doesn't trust me.

The sound of weapons fire came from a street up ahead. Both Felix and Rick instantly recognised it as being Zoid-mounted weaponry. "Let's go." Felix shouted. "They could use our help." The two Zoids broke into a run, charging towards the street.

Something flew out from around a corner. The two Zoids watched as it smashed into the street, and then clattered to a halt. It was a moment before Fleix realised what it was. The severed head of a Godos. A headless Zoid's body staggered out of the side street then collapsed backwards, as if to confirm his suspicions.

Peering around the corner, the pair of them were confronted with quite a sight. A Guysak was lying in a heap that made it look like someone had literally punched it out. Standing over it was a battered Hammerock, standing on its hind legs, one of its two arms outstretched.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Shouted the Zoid's female pilot.

"Uh, Tyehsa?" A Snipe Master peered form around a corner. "I think they're on our side."

"You know what?" Rick asked. "I don't think that finding the others will be too much of a problem."

-

"Tsuneo Tateo." Sandra muttered. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Likewise." He replied. The two of them were standing there, staring at each other, guns to the other's faces, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

"So you're with the army, huh?" She asked. "Professional Zoid pilot?"

"Yes." Tsuneo replied. Nodding would have been a very bad idea now. "And you?"

"Mercenary." She replied. "I lived here." She emphasised the 'lived' bit.

"Mercenary?" He said, somewhat surprised. "I didn't expect that out of you."

"People change." She replied. "You don't see them for a while, and next thing you know they're completely different and pointing a gun at your head." As she spoke, the emergency lighting blinked on. Sandra realised that now, Tsuneo could get a better look at her face.

"So I see." He said. He took it well. "I just didn't expect you to be out here like this."

"Because it wasn't like me?"

"Exactly." He replied. "What happened to you, Sandra?"

"The real world." She replied. "It came knocking and I found I couldn't ignore it for too much longer."

"I see." He paused. "Please, Sandra. I know this is difficult, but-"

"But what?" She began. "You need to do your job?" She snapped at him. "Well I'm doing mine, I'm surviving, the best that I can."

There was a long pause. "I see."

"I'm sorry." Sandra replied.

"For what?" Tsuneo asked, and then pitched forwards.

Sandra looked down at his still form on the floor. "Sorry that I have to leave you like this. But that's life." She sighed. "Great work, Ryan." She added without looking up.

"I'm not Ryan." Vic replied. Sandra looked up to see her standing there, a dented laptop console in her hands. She had something tied around her waist, but Sandra didn't want to think what it was. "You two sounded like you were having fun."

Sandra sniggered. "Thanks Vic." Then she paused. "Weren't you meant to be with the others outside?"

"Yeah, but I got bored. Thought I'd come in here, have some fun."

Sandra knew what that meant. A bored Vic was one of the most dangerous things in the universe. She'd probably come in here in the vain hope of something violent happening. "So have you seen Ryan?"

Vic shook her head. "Vanished. Like a ninja. Or a monkey. Or a ninja monkey." She explained. "Ninja monkey. That would be cool."

As if on cue, Rayn rounded the corner behind Vic. "Actually, I was investigating something else." He explained. "I thought I'd have a good look around and see if I could find who's in charge." He handed her a loose-leaf folder. "Command staff. Hardcopy backups."

Sandra glanced sideways at him. "Right." She muttered. For some reason she wasn't convinced. "We've got what we came for. Let's get out of here."

"Heeeeey." Vic interrupted. "What we do with Wonder Boy here?"

"Leave him." Sandra replied. "Let's go."

-

Ddezalg stared down at Bob, Tsuneo and Starling. The last two hours in this town had gone form well-maintained order to total chaos. His operation had been severely compromised, and the chances of it being salvaged were slipping fast. This was very, very bad, given that this was in the opening stages of his operation. Now he had to find out exactly what had happened, and, if possible, try to repair the damage.

"So explain to me exactly what happened, Corporal." He began, slowly.

"Yes sir." Starling replied. "A lone mercenary Dibison attacked the command centre, knocking out the primary power supply as well as blasting a hole in the west side wall. We believe that this was a distraction to allow a pair of operatives to enter the complex."

"Go on."

"Once inside, the operatives proceeded to disable this soldier and then proceed to collect information." She continued. "At present, we have confirmed that they have a complete manifest of our personnel and Zoid inventory. Corporal Keene, who was backing up the information, was also attacked."

"And his status?"

"He's recovering." She replied. "Bump on the head. That's all."

"And you say you encountered one of them?"

"Yes sir." Tsuneo replied. "I identified the woman I encountered as being Sandra Blackmore. She is a mercenary known around these parts, and has lived in this town for two years. I knew her some years ago, before I joined the service."

"Anything that could help us?" Dezalg asked.

"No sir." He replied. "It was a long time ago. That being said, I feel that she is, fundamentally, a good person. Unless she has changed a lot more then I thought."

"I see." He commented. "And what happened to you?"

"I was attacked form behind by the second operative, presumably the same one that attacked Starling." He replied, not missing a beat.

Dezalg nodded. "What's going on in the town, Bob?"

"Umm..." Bob stammered, and then pressed several buttons on his wrist console. "Eighty percent of the detainees have escaped, however we have lost only about fifty percent of the impounded Zoids. We believe that the rest are belonging to pilots that have gone to ground in the town itself, or have simply escaped on foot."

"And the damage?"

"Three Godos, three Guysacks, an Arosaurer and a Command Wolf were disabled by the attackers. In addition, a pair of Pteras were destroyed by the Storm Sworder that launched the first attack."

"Have we had any luck in identifying that Zoid?"

"No sir." Bob replied. "We found no records of any of the mercenaries in this town possessing Storm Sworders, sir."

"I see. And the supplies they took?"

"Most of the supplies they took were looted form various weapons supply stores in the town." Bob replied. "At this stage, we suspect that they have at least four Gustavs loaded with ammunition."

"I see." He turned around. "There is one more matter, Corporal Starling."

"Yes, sir?" She asked.

"Where are your pants?"

Starling gulped. This was the moment she'd been dreading. For the last few minutes she'd been standing around in her full field uniform, complete with flak jacket and comms helmet, but with no trousers.

"I think one of the enemy agents took them form me when I was knocked out." She replied, nervously. "Some sort of trophy or something, sir."

Dezalg sighed. He'd heard of soldiers collecting trophies form enemies defeated in battle. Trousers weren't usually what they took. "Tsuneo, get your troops ready to move out. Remmon will remain in charge of the town for the time being. Your forces are better suited to pursuit anyway."

"Yes sir."

"Colonel?" Bob spoke up. "I have Captain Kavirov on the line now. She's sighted the enemy force, moving away from town. She's requesting permission to attack."

"Good." He replied. "Tell her to go ahead."

-

The empty desert shook with the thundering sound of Zoids on the move. Between the sound of their movement and the dust clouds they kicked up as they went, they weren't that hard to spot. The pilots didn't care much for stealth anyway. Right now they were concentrating on speed, rather then evasion. Unfortunately, it made them very easy to spot form the air.

Vic watched her Zoid's sensors for any sign of the enemy. Equipped with a Wild Weasel Pod, her Gunsniper had the longest sensor range of any of the Zoids present. Vic liked it that way. She enjoyed watching for enemies. It meant that she could often get the first shot.

A group of blips were approaching form the south-west, the same direction they had been travelling from. Airborne, slow moving but keeping a tight formation. Pursuers from the town, most likely. Their fanclub come to see them.

"Hey!" She shouted across an open channel. "Bad news. Airborne. Come to say hello. Tea and scones, maybe."

"What?" Anna asked, intruding into the channel. "What did she just say?"

"It means that we have airborne pursuers, probably hostile. Tool. That's the last thing we need." Sandra replied. "That's the way Vic talks."

"You get used to it after a while." Rick replied. "Actually you don't, but you somehow manage to cope with it."

"Heads up, tools!" Sandra shouted across the channel. "We have incoming airborne attackers! I want you to fan out and form a defensive ring around the Gustavs. We need what they have so don't let any of those tools touch 'em!"

"Do we stand and fight?" Felix shouted.

"No!" She yelled. "Keep running!"

Mentally, Sandra knew that she was in trouble. Anna's Redhorn was the only one of their Zoids that was particularly good or capable against airborne attackers. Most of the others had some weapons that could do in a pinch, but it still left them with a gap in their capabilities. Tool. Nothing they could do but weather the attack and try to take out as many of them as possible.

Anna moved her Redhorn to the centre of their group. The others fanned out around the Gustavs to try to provide sone degree of overlapping fire. Sandra was far from optimistic.

"Here they come!" Rick shouted as the Pteras squad dived towards them.

"Weee-geee!" Vic shouted to emphasise the point.

The first wave of Pteras dived at the formation, unleashing a flurry of missiles at the escaping Zoids. They were greeted with countermeasures and anti-air fire that seemed to fill the sky around them. Explosions from the missiles kicked up dust and dirt, filling the air with smoke. A brilliant fireball lit up the night as one of the Gustavs took a hit on its rear trailer, the stored ammunition cocking off in a brilliant display. The Pteras squadron broke away, only to be replaced by a second flight that swooped in while the defender's attention was focussed elsewhere.

Sandra yanked the Liger's controls hard to the right as a missile went off right next to her Zoid. "Tool!" She swore. That was too close for comfort. She replied with a burst of fire form the Liger's back cannons that spat at the fleeing Zoid. Things were not looking good for them. Her only hope was that they could ride it out.

-

Natasha Kavirov watched the battle from the cockpit of her Zoid. For the moment, she was content to merely observe rather then attack directly. So far her men were doing well enough on their own without her help. Besides, her Zoid was configured fro air-to-air combat, not air to ground. The Pteras could handle it better. Besides, it was likely that nobody on the ground even knew she was there.

Of average height, with long light brown hair, blue eyes and a shapely figure, Natasha easily fit the image of what many called a "Storm Sworder pilot". The truth was that she'd never piloted a Storm Sworder in her life. She actually preferred her current Zoid with its large weapons array over the Sworder's near total reliance on close-combat.

Besides, Reddlers and Gunsnipers seemed to have more then their faire share of attractive female pilots, and nobody ever seemed to make jokes about those.

Her men were doing well. One of the six Gustavs was down, and another one had been hit. The enemy anti-air fire had been largely ineffective; two of the Pteras were damaged, but both were still able to fight. Things were looking up.

A blip on her sensor screen caught her attention. Something was approaching her Zoid form behind at a high rate of speed. Another Zoid, she asked herself. These guys have nothing in the air unless…

Something passed directly below her in a silver blur, its pilot completely passing her by. In a way, Kavirov was relieved. That meant that everything was working. But at the same time, it meant that whatever it was had a clean run at her Pteras squad.

Prey on her men? Not likely.

She opened the Zoid's throttle to full and set off after the attacker. If that's what I think it is, she thought, then this should be an interesting battle.

As she closed on the new arrival, she failed to notice a second airborne Zoid, far smaller and slower then its companion, approaching from behind.

-

Reven didn't even bother with subtlety in her attack. The charge straight in approach had worked well for her last time she'd dealt with these clowns, and she didn't see any reason to change now. Besides which, last time they'd been focussed on her. This time they had something else to occupy their attention.

She dived straight at a pair of Pteras coming up form their attack run. The two pilots were concentrating far too much on avoiding the AA fire coming from the poor fools on the ground to realise what was happening before it was too late. She squeezed the trigger on her control stick, sending twin streams of fire from the Sworder's wing-mounted guns into the back of the first Pteras.

The Pteras erupted into flames, having apparently already suffered damage from the enemy ground fire. The pilot briefly struggled to bring the Zoid under control, before bailing out and leaving the Pteras to its fate.

The second pilot must have seen what happened to his wingman, as he suddenly started ignoring the ground fire and concentrating on Reven. Pulling away from the enemy force, he tried to break away and escape form her. His mistake, she thought. The Pteras was far slower and les manoeuvrable then the Storm Sworder. As he turned away form her, she pulled her zoid around, rapidly closing the distance between the two. Opening up the throttle, she sliced her Zoid across the enemy's path.

Glancing back over her shoulder, she could see the Pteras lazily roll through the sky. As it went, its right wing slowly separated form its body, leaving the Pteras to roll down to the darkness below.

"Too easy." she said, smiling to herself. "Now for something difficult."

A bleep from her sensors warned her of a third Pteras coming up behind her. Yanking the control stick, she rolled the Storm Sworder to the right as the Pteras opened fire with its head-mounted cannon. Leaving the stream of tracer fire behind, the Storm Sworder climbed away into the night sky, before looping around and diving on her would-be attacker.

"Gotcha, sucker." She said to herself as she lined up the Pteras in her sights. Before she could fire, however, a missile struck the small Zoid form behind, blasting its left wing apart. "What?" she shouted.

A dull purple Sinker buzzed past her. "Hey there, boss." Z-One said as his masked face popped up on a comms screen. "I thought you might need some help."

"That was my kill and you vulched it!"

"Sorry, ma'am." Z-One muttered.

"When I want your help I'll ask for it." She snarled.

There was a slight, strange sensation in the back of her head, as if someone was tapping her on the shoulder. As if in response from some unspoken command, she yanked the control stick, sending the Storm Sworder pitching to the left. Behind her a burst of laser fire filled the sky where her Zoid had been only a second before.

"What was that?" Z-One shouted. "You okay, boss?"

"Did you see anything?" She shouted.

"No…" He replied. "Just a burst of fire."

"Well then deal with it!" She shouted. "Whatever it is, I want it taken out and now!"

-

"What the frelling hell is going on up there?" Sandra shouted. The enemy attacks had suddenly disintegrated into chaos as a pair of Zoids had plunged headlong into the enemy's combat formation. Now the sky was filled with a swirling mess of Zoids and weapons fire.

"I have no idea!" Anna replied. "Vic?"

"Shiny birdy came out of nowhere with his little fishy friend." She replied. "Swish."

"I think that means they're on our side." Sandra replied. "Everyone, don't fire unless you're sure that the enemy is a hostile Pteras!"

"Oh sure." Felix muttered. "Like that's going to be easy to figure out."

"Tomy damn it, just do it!" Sandra shouted back.

"Whoa, okay." Rick replied.

As if on cue, a Pteras swooped down on the formation, its cannon firing wildly at a damaged Gustav. The pilot was off target, the shells bouncing off its heavily armoured shell. Aborting his run, the pilot tried to climb to escape.

"No you don't!" Anna shouted. The Redhorn's Beam Gattling slewed around to follow the enemy Zoid, then opened fire. A stream of fire spat form the cannon, opening up the Pteras from nose to tail. The damaged zoid continued along its way for a moment, then simply disintegrated into a ball of flames.

"Like that?" Anna asked.

"Yeah." Sandra replied.

"That… that woman scares me." Ryan added. "By the way, you might like to know that I've discovered a canyon we can shelter in about twenty klicks north of here."

Sandra had all but forgotten about him. She certainly hadn't seen his Helcat since the attack began. "Where the frelling hell have you been anyway?"

"Scouting." He replied. "Since my Helkitty doesn't have any significant AA capabilities, I thought I'd go invisible and see if could find us some cover."

Sandra was in two minds. On one hand, she wanted to hit him for that. On the other hand, the cover would help. "Right. Lead the way."

"Yes, ma'am!" He replied.

"But one thing, Ryan." She said. "Don't you ever, run off on your own again without telling me first."

-

Natasha dived after the Storm Sworder, waiting until the last possible moment before attacking. The pilot can't be aware of me, she thought. Not this time. She opened fire, only to watch as the Storm Sworder climbed away at the last possible second. Damn it, she thought. How are they doing it?

Glancing over her shoulder, she could see a Pteras trying to escape an attack by a Sinker. The enemy pilot was not letting up, however, peppering the Pteras with fire form its cannons. Swearing at the enemy pilot, Natasha abandoned the Storm Sworder for the moment, instead brining her Zoid around to open fire on the Sinker.

Unlike the Storm Sworder, the Sinker's pilot was a lot less lucky. Several shots punctured one of its wings before the smaller Zoid broke off its attack and tried to climb away. Before she could pursue it, a bleep from her sensors warned her that the Storm Sworder was coming up right behind her.

"How can it see me?" She shouted to herself.

The Storm Sworder pilot opened fire, the beams form its cannons filling the air around her. Then Natasha realised that the pilot may not have seen her, but may have seen her weapons fire. Her Zoid took several hits before she could break off. Red lights showed all over the board, her right wing and fuselage having taken some damage. As she broke, she noticed the Sworder was still firing at the air where she had been, clearly not completely aware of her situation.

It was not looking good. Half her squad were down and her own Zoid was damaged. She doubted she could take out the Sworder in her current state. Not with their damnable luck, at least. She opened up a comm. Channel to her remaining pilots.

"All units, break off engagement and return to base."

-

True to what Ryan had said, there was a canyon ahead. It was wide enough to accommodate all their Zoids, yet narrow enough to make an attack from the air difficult. Which meant that it was perfect for the time being.

Sandra had arbitrarily decided that they would stop there for the moment. Everyone was tired from the day's events and the recent battle. Additionally, their Zoids needed a lot of work, Weapons needed to be ere-armed, damage needed to be assessed and repaired. This would be made more difficult by the fact that nobody had an exact inventory of what they had actually taken from the town. The five remaining Gustavs needed to be checked to see exactly what they had.

Sandra was currently checking over Spud. He seemed to be mostly fine, with just some damage to his armour. His speed and shield seemed to have once again paid off and kept him intact, which was a small blessing in and of itself. Of late, Spud had taken far too much abuse. Mainly when Sel was around, Sandra mentally added.

Of course, she still owed their mysterious saviours some thanks. If not for them, they probably wouldn't be here.

"Can somebody please tell me who's in charge?" A demanding female voice came form behind and below her. Sandra turned around to see a woman standing by the entrance to the canyon, a man next to her. She was tall, with long black hair, green eyes and a form-fitting jumpsuit that had been unzipped to reveal her considerable cleavage, topped off with a jacket that looked to be trimmed with white fur. The man next to her was wearing a dull-blue jumpsuit and, she noticed his flight helmet and a mask, leaving only his eyes visible.

Great, she thought. It would happen that the Storm Sworder had a Storm Sworder pilot in it. Why does my life seem to feature so many ridiculously attractive women? "I guess that's me" she began as she climbed down from Spud's side. "Sandra Blackmore. Thanks for helping us out back there."

"Help nothing." The woman replied. "You almost lead them straight into my hideout. If I hadn't intervened, they probably would have caught us and cost me an awful lot."

Thanks, I like you too, Sandra mentally thought. "I'm sorry about that. We had no idea that you were out here to that we'd lead the army onto you."

"The… army?" The woman seemed to be momentarily taken back.

"Yeah. These tools are from the UZN. Heaven alone knows what they're up to, but I suspect that its not doing us much good."

The woman turned to her masked companion. "You didn't tell me that they were the UZN army!" She hissed.

"You didn't give me a chance." He replied, casually. "You were more concerned with the state of your jacket then with anything else." Sandra sensed that he was one of the many things covered by 'anything else'.

"Well that changes things." The woman said. "I take it that you people are on the run from the army?"

"Yes." Sandra replied. "They came in and took over Bed Springs. We decided to get out while things were good."

"In that case, I think that we should join forces." The woman replied. Read, we'll need your help because I don't want to be caught, Sandra thought. Still, I've had more dubious allies. Rose immediately came to mind. "Reven." She said and extended her hand.

"Sandra Blackmore." Sandra shook it. Strong grip. Forceful. Whoever this woman was, she was accustomed to fighting.

"And this is my minion, Z-One." Reven said, indicating to her masked companion.

"Yo."

Sandra sighed. She could tell that this was going to end well.

-

"Psst… Sandra... You awake?"

Sandra blinked. Of course she was frelling well awake, she thought. You poked me awake. She rolled over. Rick was standing over her.

"Wha?" She began. "This had better be good Rick. I'm not a morning person."

"Yes you are. You're up long before any of us."

Trust Rick to bring logic into a situation like this, but not into anything sensible like a life-or-death matter, she thought. "Fine. I'm awake. What is it?" She asked as she sat up.

"We've got a bit of a situation outside." Rick said. "Since you seem to be in charge, I think you should look at it."

"Fine. Right. Tool." She replied. "How did I get to be in charge?"

"I think you were the best at shouting at people until they listened and did what you said." Rick replied, shrugging. "So we all just kind of accepted it."

"Great. I'm in charge because I'm the only person here with any common sense." He glared at him. "Give me a couple of minutes and I'm there."

"Sure thing." Rick replied.

A few minutes of getting hurriedly dressed and swearing, Sandra joined Rick, who was standing by his Command Wolf. "This had better be important." She muttered. "Otherwise I kill you."

"Wow. That sounded like Vic." Rick replied.

Sandra stood there quietly for a moment. "Just show me what it is."

He lead her to the front of the canyon where Stuart's Dibison was standing guard. "Look outside." He indicated to the front of the canyon. "Tell me what you make of it."

Sandra slowly walked to the front of the canyon, and then stopped and blinked. There were at least two dozen Zoids parked outside. Some of their pilots were asleep, while others were milling around or checking their Zoids. Sandra could recognise a few of them from Bed Springs, Lanard and other places.

"What the frelling hell is going on?" She muttered.

"I think…" Rick began. I think we have an army."

-


	44. Pitch Invason

Brown Hills

The Wastelands

0900 Hours

"Will somebody please explain what the frelling hell is going out there" Sandra began. She'd gathered up the few people she knew she could get a straight answer out of – Rick, Anna, Felix and Ryan – to try to figure out what exactly all the people currently camped outside their bolt-hole were doing. To complicate matters, Reven had arbitrarily invited herself to this meeting, clearly not willing to be left out of the decision making process. Vic also had, but Sandra knew exactly why she was there.

"From what I can tell," Anna began, "word of what happened last night has managed to spread around. My suspicion is that all these people have come here to fight the army."

"From looking them over, I'd say they're all mercenaries from the town." Ryan offered. "I could recognise a lot of them from past travels. I can name you some good names."

Well that made some degree of sense, Sandra thought. She'd looked over the Zoids in their new-found force. As far as she could tell, they'd have nothing even remotely resembling a coherent, structured force with what they had on hand. She doubted if there were even two people piloting the same Zoid out there.

"Great." Felix muttered. "Now we've got a whole bunch of hanger-onerers to take care of." He spat on the ground to make a point. "Just what we need."

"I don't see what the problem is." Reven replied. "I, for one, relish the opportunities presented to us by these new arrivals." She smiled. "After all, they will need leaders. I just happen to have a lot of experience as an airborne force commander."

Sandra eyed the woman warily, noting that she still hadn't done up the front of her flightsuit. Yeah, I know exactly how you got your men to follow you, she thought. They see two things in you as a leader.

"You have great leadership assets." Vic added as if she was reading Sandra's mind, then sniggered.

"Why thank you." Reven replied. "It's good to know that somebody around here appreciates me."

"Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you, Reven." Rick spoke up. Sandra rolled her eye, knowing exactly where this was going. "I'm writing a graphic novel based on my experiences here in the wastelands."

"Oh?" Reven asked, her interest suddenly diverted.

"Um, I was wondering if you'd like to be in it." He explained.

Reven seemed to consider it for whole seconds. Certainly the thought of celebrity status, no matter how minor, seemed to appeal to her. "What would it entail?"

"Well, I'd have to do an interview to get more info on your character," he began. "And if possible I'd like to do some sketches of you, uh, for, um, reference. So I know what you look like for when I draw you for the book."

Reven smiled. "Certainly." She replied. "Shall we get started now?"

"Uhh…" Rick swallowed. "Well, yeah, sure, I mean…" Reven walked off, putting a lot of sway into her hips. Rick looked at Sandra who shrugged. He shrugged back and then followed her.

After a moment, Sandra turned back to the others. "Now that we've gotten the brains trust out of the way, back to the matter at hand." She turned to Anna. "So what do we have out there?"

"A quick headcount gives us twenty-four additional Zoids, almost all class two or three machines; Iguan, Molga, Rev Rapter, Godos, Command Wolf and the like. There are a few standouts, most notably a Dimetrodon and a Battle Cougar."

"Any air power?" Felix asked.

"Besides the Cougar, there's a pair of Pteras and a Storch." Anna replied.

"Storchio!" Vic added.

"It's not much, but it'll make a lot of difference." She continued, trying to ignore Vic.

"If it means we're not entirely reliant on Reven, it's a good start." Sandra replied. "I just don't trust her."

"A little to mercenary for you liking, right?" Felix asked.

Sandra glared at him before continuing. "So all up, it's mostly small stuff."

Anna nodded. "Your Shield Liger, my Redhorn, Stuart's Dibison, Reven's Sworder, the Dimetro and the Cougar are the only 'big' units we've got. The good news is that most of the enemy force seems to be Class two and three Zoids as well. I personally saw one Koenig Wolf and a Gordos, but not squads of them."

"But they've got the numbers advantage." Sandra replied. "Not to mention organisation and training."

"And they also have a Cannon Tortoise unit, which makes things tougher." Felix added. "They can just shell us into oblivion from a distance. Not to mention far more fliers then we have."

"So we can't really outfight them if they come after us." Ryan offered. "And I suspect we can't keep running forever. But I think I have an idea that could help us."

Sandra glanced at him. "Oh? Do explain."

"We have to find some way to nullify their advantages of numbers, artillery and air supremacy." He explained. "The easiest way to do that would be to pick conditions that favour us rather then them."

"Somewhere with a lot of cover, for example." Anna offered. "We reduce the combat to close-quarters fighting where they can't use their artillery and flyers as effectively."

Sandra nodded. "That sounds like a plan. However, for the moment, I want to get a better idea of exactly what we have and, if possible, what they have."

"So we need to put together a Table of Organisation-" Anna began.

"Military disorganisation" Vic interjected.

"-and equipment" Anna finished, trying to stay on course.

"And if we could get our hands on an enemy pilot, then that would also help." Felix finished. "I'm sure they could be very cooperative if we asked 'em in the right way."

"You haven't changed." Sandra muttered.

-

Tsuneo's Koenig Wolf sped across the desert floor, almost daring is Command Wolf subordinates to try and catch it. Carrying both the missile launchers and the dual sniper cannon pods, the Zoid was equipped to take on anything that might be out there.

Whether its pilot could was another matter.

Despite the bump on the back of the head he'd taken back at HQ, he'd told the medtechs that he was fine to begin the pursuit of the fleeing mercenaries, which was mostly true. His encounter with Sandra had left him somewhat unsettled, however.

He hadn't expected to see her again after this much time, and certainly not under these circumstances. The change in her had been dramatic, he realised. Not just the physical changes, like her right eye, but the mental ones. When he'd known her, she'd been a fun person. Friendly. Enthusiastic. Happy. Now she seemed to be somewhat bitter and angry at the whole world.

True, it wasn't under the best circumstances for them to catch up. Two people who are pointing guns at each other are rarely open to conversation. But it seemed to be more then just that. Clearly she was angry about what had just happened and, frankly, he couldn't blame her.

Of course, there was the surprise when he learned what exactly it was that she was doing there. A mercenary? A hired gun? Killing for a living? He hadn't expected that out of her. In fact, she was about the last person he'd have expected to end up like that. And while he was a soldier, there was a difference. Tsuneo did this because he was protecting people and serving his country. The money was secondary.

"Captain?" A voice shook him out of his train of thought.

He flicked on the communicator to see Sargent Bob, one of Dezalgs aides on the screen. "What is it, Bob?" he asked.

"We've found them." Bob replied. Like himself, Sergent Bob and Corporal Starling had been sent out to try and find the escapees from the town. "I'm sending you the info now."

A beep indicated that the Konig Wolf's systems had received the data. Pressing some buttons on the display, he bought up a map of the area. A particular grid was illuminated. "Brown Hills?"

"Yes sir." Bob replied. "A mess of canyons and rolling hills. Gives them a good deal of cover from air attacks and helps them conceal their troops."

"I see."

"Apparently there was some big battle in the area many, many years back. There's still low-level particle interference in the background that makes sensors a little unreliable."

"Hmmm." He began. "Very clever. Where are you now, Bob?"

"Grid XF10F." He replied.

"Stay there. I'll get Starling's group and Kavirov. Then we'll take them"

"Yes sir." Bob replied and singed of.

I'm sorry, Sandra. He thought. This is my duty.

-

It had been many hours since the attack and the command centre was still a mess. The primary power was still out, and the secondary was less then reliable. And, of course, there was still a big hole in one wall left over form when the Dibison had blown up the generators. Despite all these drawbacks, Dezalg's technicians had done a good job in restoring it to some degree of order.

Dezalg was standing in the central command room surveying the reconstruction work. He hadn't slept much last night. He couldn't afford to. His operation had been falling apart around him due to unforseen circumstances. One thing had lead to another and the next thing he knew his troops were chasing bandits across the wastelands.

He shook his head. It was impossible that it could come to this. He'd never been defeated in his entire career and he wasn't about to start now. And not to people like these. He would recover from this minor setback and carry on his duty to the best of his ability.

"You asked to see us, Colonel." Voice form behind grabbed his attention. He swung around to see Major Remmon and Captain Kaviroff, two of his top officers waiting. Remmon was a tall and gaunt man with long blond hair and sharp features. His uniform was, as always, impeccably neat. He was Dezalg's second in command on this operation, although his particular specialties meant that he was unlikely to see much action for the first part of the campaign.

"Yes." He began. "Captain Tateo has located the escapees from last night's debacle. I'm sending him with half our force to apprehend them. He's requested air support, however."

"I'm ready to go, sir." Kaviroff replied.

"What's the status of your Zoid?" He'd been surprised when her Zoid had come back damaged from last night's battle. It shouldn't have happened.

"Repairs are complete. Most of the damage was superficial anyway, sir." She replied.

"And the enemy's detection of your attack?"

"I'm willing to put that down to luck and coincidence on their behalf, sir." She replied. "It won't happen again."

Dezalg frowned, furrowing his brow. He didn't believe in such things. But, if she was confident in her ability to do her job, he'd let it pass. "Good. Take as many of the Pteras units as you need. We'll keep the Hammerhead units in reserve here."

"Yes sir."

"Remmon, I want you to use our remaining troops to shore up the defences around the town. I don't want to risk a counterattack here."

"That will be difficult." Remmon replied. "The town has nothing in the way of built-in defences or even protective walls. There isn't even any terrain we can use to our advantage."

"I understand." Dezalg replied. "Nonetheless, we must make do with what we have."

"Yes sir."

"Dismissed."

The two of them turned and left. Dezalg turned back to a large map of the local area, inspecting the details. Brown Hills, he thought. The enemy commander was clearly a clever one. They knew their weaknesses and could figure his strengths. But he also knew that the Brown Hills couldn't support them forever. If Tsuneo didn't flush them out, they'd have to move anyway. There were too many ways in and out of that area that his own troops could exploit. And if his troops flushed them out, there were only a few places they could go.

Time to finish this, he thought.

-

Sandra sat outside the entrance to the canyon, watching the area below her. Zoid pilots and technicians were swarming over the various machines present, checking for damages or preparing them for battle. Amazing, she thought. A few days ago, she had herself with Rick and Vic as her hanger-onerers and almost subordinates. Now she had a small army.

Still, it was what she'd gone through to get to this that bothered her. Why were the army here, she asked herself. What were they doing here? And why were they now so anxious to get back all those who had escaped from their custody? Surely a bunch of unwashed mercenaries couldn't be that important to their operation, could they?

And then there was Tsuneo. She'd heard he'd joined the army, but hadn't expected to see him out here of all places. And certainly not pointing a gun at her. Then again, a year ago she hadn't expected that she'd be best friends with a secretive generically-engineered warrior woman from a lost city hidden in the dark continent who had a sever anger management problem. So that was fair.

"Hey." Felix sat down next to her. "Something up?"

"You're being surprisingly sociable." Sandra replied. "For you."

"Just saw you up here, that's all." He muttered.

"Fine." She replied. That was being unfair, she added. She dragged Felix into all this. "Sorry for being a tool just then."

"It's okay." He replied. "I think I qualify as a 'tool' most of the time."

"Given what you used to do for a living, that's something I can believe." Felix glared at her. "Sorry. Cheap shot."

"What do you suppose they're after?" He asked.

"No idea." She replied. "I doubt its some sort of exercise, given the lengths they're going to. I'm beginning to think they may be on some sort of search and destroy or clean-up mission."

"You don't think it could be..." Felix began, and then trailed off.

"A-X?" Sandra replied. "Possibly. Me, Rick and Vic had a bit of a boof with those boofheads a few months ago. We kind of ended up blowing up their central headquarters."

He looked surprised. "Just the three of you?"

"Well, we were with some friends. Nobody you know however." She replied.

"Right." He grunted. "That must have made Desmond's day. Having his headquarters blown out form underneath him."

"Desmond died a few months before that." Sandra replied, then automatically wished she hadn't. That could lead to some complicated questions.

"He did?" Felix sounded genuinely surprised. "How did this happen?"

"Ah…" She began and then trailed off. Something caught her eye. Something moving in amongst the hills at the far end of the valley.

"Sandra?" He asked.

"Shh." She replied. "There's something out there."

Felix looked around. "You've got mighty good eyesight for someone with one eye." He replied. "I can't see anything."

"It's a Zoid." She hissed. "I'm certain."

-

Tsuneo carefully manoeuvred his Zoid through the maze of hills around the enemy camp, determined to avoid contact with the enemy until the right moment. He was operating alone; the rest of his squad were waiting nearby for his signal to attack. While the Konig Wolf was a large Zoid, it also was surprisingly fast, agile and quiet.

He'd expected that a number of them might form up into a larger force. He hadn't expect this many, however. He'd counted two dozen outside the canyon. Combined with the units that attacked the town last night, that makes thirty, he figured, plus Gustavs. This would be a lot harder then he thought.

Under the plan he and Dezalg had devised, His forces would flush out the enemy who would likely try to loose them in the mess of canyons, hills and valleys. Tsuneo's troops would use their superior speed to pursue them and then heard them into the waiting arms of troops lead by Bob and Starling, who would use their Zoid's superior sensory systems to locate the fleeing opponents.

Simple.

Of course, the thing that worried him was that he couldn't see most of the enemy's largest Zoids from here. He knew they had a Dibison and a Redhorn, and he'd heard reports from Natasha of a Shield Liger as well. Any one of those was a reasonable match for his Konig Wolf. Three would be overwhelming.

So he had to use the element of surprise.

The Konig Wolf stopped by the side of a hill, overlooking the camp. From here, he figured, anyone below wouldn't be able to see much of his Zoid, while he'd have a pretty clean shot at them. Just so long as nobody spotted him.

He flicked a switch on the control panel, switching the Konig Wolf over to its Sniper mode. Unlike the Gunsniper, the Konig Wolf didn't need to present its tail to the target in order to use its sniping weapons. Rather they were mounted in an independently-targetable pod on the Zoid's back. This meant that, unlike the Gunsniper, the Zoid could move between shots if it needed to.

The Zoid was also equipped with a set of specialised targeting sensors that resembled nothing as much as goggles. When folded down over the Konig Wolf's head the appearance was somewhat incongruous, but the results were effective. Tsuneo flicked between several different display options as he went through the targets below.

Most of the Zoids are powered down at the moment, he thought. I can easily get one before they can respond, probably more. And I can outrun most anything they have there. He dropped his sights over the camp, looking for an ideal target.

-

Sandra squinted, then turned back to Felix. "We're under attack!" She shouted, leaping to her feet. "Tell everyone!"

There was a pair of loud explosions, as a Brachios in the camp suddenly bucked and tipped over onto its side. The result was distressingly like what Sandra had seen from the Gunsniper's tail cannon.

"Snipers!" She shouted. "There's a sniper on the far side of the camp!"

The camp itself erupted into chaos. Pilots ran for their Zoids while technicians ran for cover from the unseen attackers. Nobody knew exactly what was going on, so it suddenly became a matter of twenty-three heavily armed battle machines, each with a pilot trying to do their own thing to defend against a sight unseen attacker.

"Doggie!" Sandra heard a voice above her call. Looking up, she could see Vic's Gunsniper standing over her, its tail pointed in the rough direction of the attack. The girl's paranoid, she thought. "Dog equals animal equals food!" And nuts.

The Gunsniper fired, Sandra staggering as the sound of the shot filled her ears. From down here, it seemed a lot louder than it ever did when she was hearing it from inside her cockpit. Across the camp there was an explosion kicking up a clump of rocks and sand. Vic had missed her target. Hopefully he'd take off before…

"I see him!" There was a thunderous stamping noise as Stuart's Dibison charged out of the cave, stampeding straight past her and Vic as if they weren't there. The massive black Zoid charged into the camp, its head bowing down as the back-mounted cannon array opened up. Shots rained down across the hill where Sandra had last seen the attacker.

Whatever it was, its pilot clearly wasn't in a mood to hang around under the fire of the Dibison's cannons. Between the explosions, the smoke and chunks of flying rock she thought she could make out a grey and white shape, running away behind the hills.

"Yeah baby! Take this and this and this! Boom, baby, boom!" Stuart shouted as the Dibison fired a second volley from its seventeen main canons. The shots scattered around the hills, a few coming dangerously close to friendly Zoids.

"Stuart!" She shouted. Nothing. "Stop firing, you maniac!"

"STUART!" There was a loud shout from A PA system. Sandra instantly recognised the voice as Anna's. Her Redhorn stomped out of the canyon to stand next to the Dibison. "You stop that right now, you understand?"

"Eh…" Stuart suddenly replied, the Dibison almost shrinking away form the smaller Redhorn. "Um, sure thing Anna." He replied.

"Good." She snapped. "Sandra, what's going on here?"

"Not entirely sure." Sandra replied. "A sniper of some description took out one of the mercs in a Brac." She indicated towards the downed Zoid. "Stuart and Vic opened fire on him but the tool got away. They churned up the landscape pretty good." She gestured towards the line of bomb craters.

"We try." Vic replied.

"They know we're here then." Anna said. "We'll need to move."

Sandra nodded. "Start shouting at people to get ready to go. I'll get the others."

"Where are we going?"

Sandra paused in the mouth of the canyon. "I have no idea." She replied. "But at least that way, our enemies don't know either."

-

On the far side of the hills, Bob was waiting in his Goreheks, a squad of Command Wolves and Guysacks around him. "What could be keeping him?" He asked himself for the millionth time. The Gorhecks' crystal radar had managed to cut through most of the interference coming from the Brown Hills, which made him wonder why there hadn't been any reports yet from Tsuneo.

"Hey Bob!" Starling's voice interrupted his train of thought.

"What?" He snapped back, his harried-looking face appearing on the monitor.

"Where's Tsuneo?" She asked. "I haven't heard anything from him yet."

Bob rolled his eyes, glad she couldn't see them behind his one-way communications visor. "He said he'd contact us when he was in position. Maybe they're just better dug in then he thought."

"Well…" Starling replied. "Well maybe they got him already and that's why he hasn't called us."

"Then one of his men would have called us in." Bob replied, trying not to sound like he was talking down to an idiot. Which, at least in his mind, he was. How Starling got this job was anyone's guess.

"What if they got all of them as well?" She replied.

He sighed. "Of course. Yes, I'm sure they got them all. In fact, I'm sure it was the crazy saboteur who stole your trousers that did it."

"Of course!" Starling snapped. "It must have been them! If they can beat me that easily, they could easily take out Tsuneo."

"But-" Bob replied. He had been joking.

"I'd better go in there and back him up then!" She shouted. "Bob, you stay here in case any of them try to escape!"

"But-" He was about to add, but she cut him off.

Fine then, he thought. He'd already had his fair share of disasters on this operation. Dezalg had placed all the blame for what happened in town on him and his inability to control the detainees. It wasn't his fault if a stupid Storm Sworder had blown over the canopy on the detention centre and caused a riot. And it wasn't his fault that he'd been smacked over the head by an escapee. And it wasn't his fault that they'd blown up the command centre and trashed several Zoids and stolen a lot of ammo.

And Starling had only herself to blain for being knocked out and having her pants stolen.

There was a hiss of static from his communicator that dragged him back to the present. Flicking some switches, Bob opened up a comms channel. "This is Bob, do you read me?"

"Bob, it's Tsuneo." His face appeared on the screen. "There's far more of them then we'd expected. They've gone into the canyons and are heading your way. Stay where you are and prepare to intercept."

"Don't you want us to go in after them?" he asked, realising what was about to happen.

"Negative." Tsuneo replied. "I'm in pursuit now. I'll try to herd them towards you. Just don't move!" He closed the communications link.

Don't move? Bob thought. Well, that's fine. I can stay here. He can't blame me for this. Only Starling.

Starling who is my immediate subordinate.

Who I'm responsible for.

Crap.

-

Back at the camp, chaos reigned. Nobody had any idea what had just happened. As most of the pilots saw it, a Brachios had suddenly been shot out, and a Dibison that was supposedly on their side had started shelling the area around the camp.

Sandra stared out at the chaos from the cockpit of her Shield Liger, almost dumbfounded by the chaos outside. How did I end up in charge of this, she asked herself. I should have just stayed in the prison camp all nice and secure. That way I at least get fed and don't have to take responsibility for anything. Since when have I been a leader anyway, she mentally added.

"Everybody, stay calm!" She shouted over the Zoid's PA system. "Listen to me!"

The chaos continued regardless.

"WILL YOU ALL STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOW AND LISTEN TO HER!" Anna shouted over her Zoid's PA system. Oddly enough, everyone stopped.

She's quite scary when she's angry, Sandra thought. I'm glad she's on our side.

"What's happening?" Someone shouted.

"We're under attack." Sandra replied. "Probably the army chasing us from Bed Springs. At this stage, it appears to be only one or two forward scouts, but It's fair to say that there's probably a lot more of them still coming."

"So what's the plan?" Another voice form the crowd shouted.

"We try to loose them in the brown hills." Sandra replied. "We split up and make our separate ways through the hills, then all meet up on the north side. That way they'll have to split their attention between our forces." She paused. "Reven will lead our airborne Zoids and will be responsible for keeping enemy air support of our back and providing recon information on the enemy forces."

Sandra had only put Reven in charge of the flyers because she knew the woman would kick up a fuss otherwise. Then again, Sandra figured that as long as the other pilots in Reven's newfound squad could peer down her front, they'd all be happy to follow her.

"With a bit of luck, we should be able to loose our opponents and meet on the other side of the hills. From there, we'll head north." By then I should have a plan, she mentally added. "Tomy willing, we can figure a way out of this."

"If he exists." Anna quietly muttered over the communicator.

And here I thought she could be the exception and be sane, Sandra mentally added.

-

It had been a long time since Reven had a force any larger then just herself and Z-One. She remembered how much she enjoyed leadership, especially the bossing people around part. Her squad may be small at the moment, she thought, but they're all mine.

The rest of her newfound squad had seemed eager to follow her lead. She couldn't blame them. Who wouldn't want to follow an obviously superior, intelligent, capable, charming and witty woman like her? True, they probably all found her attractive, but that was just one of her many assets as a leader, she thought.

The only one that had been a problem to her was the pilot of the brightly-coloured Battle Cougar. A young man called Derek, he seemed to think that he was possessed of some sort of razor sharp wit. She found him boorish, overbearing, obnoxious and arrogant, but at least he seemed to be a good pilot. Or, at the very least, have a good Zoid.

Sandra's information had lead her to believe that the enemy was to the south of their current position. After all, that was where the initial attack had come from, and it was where their attacker had fled. So it made sense.

A white and grey shape moving in the desert below caught her eyes. It was a Konig Wolf, a large Zoid designed for high speed and agility. Despite this, it was lacking in anti-aircraft protection. And it was all hers.

"I've spotted the attacker." She broadcasted to the squad. "I'll take him out. You lot cover me."

The Storm Sworder peeled away from the formation and dived at the fleeing enemy Zoid. As she approached, she opened fire with the Zoids twin beam cannons, spitting fire at the enemy machine. At the last possible second, the enemy pilot must have noticed her, as he was able to swerve his Zoid out of the line of fire.

Cursing under her breath, she climbed out of the way, watching the Konig Wolf fall back behind her. Suddenly Z-One's voice filled her ears. "Boss! Watch out! Behind that hill!"

She hurriedly turned back to the front as her Zoid passed over a hill. Behind it was a squad of Command Wolves of varying configurations, waiting for her. She hurriedly puled back on the control stick, sending the Sworder into a steep climb. Below her, the Wolves opened fire, filling the air with shots from their various weapons.

"Damn it!" She swore. That ruined her chances of taking out the Konig Wolf on her own. I suppose I'll have to share the glory with my squad now, she added.

A beeping from her sensors caught her attention. Looking down to her scope, she could see a formation of blips approaching her position from the south. Form the looks of it, they were airborne.

"We've got company!" She called out to the squad. This was going to be fun.

-

Sandra had been hoping that the enemy wouldn't think to send troops around the hills to cut off their escape. Which of course meant that they had, if only just to annoy her.

An Arosaurer and a Godos stepped around a corner in front of her. For a moment she paused, not sure whose side they were on. In these hills, with the interference to communications it was very possible that some other members of her force had already gotten ahead of her.

Then they both opened fire at her, confirming that they were indeed hostile. The shots struck the Liger's front armour, doing little more then denting it. Not waiting around for the second volley, She charged at the two Zoids, opening fire with the impact cannon. The Godos staggered back and collapsed under the impact, while the tougher Arosaurer remained standing.

A pair of shots streaked past her, tearing into the Arosaurer's front armour. Checking over her shoulder, Sandra could see a Bearfighter behind her, one she recognised from the camp. "Thanks for the assist" she called.

"No problem." The Bearfighter's pilot replied. The smaller Zoid loped past hers, firing its twin cannons at the Arosaurer again, clipping its knee. Sandra capitalised on the attack with a burst form her top cannons that further dug into the Arosaurer's knee, apparently crippling its mobility.

Before the Arosaurer could move, the Bearfighter reared up onto its hind legs, exposing its six-barrelled chest cannon. The cannon opened fire, tearing huge chunks out of the Arosaurer's chest armour. As the Zoid staggered form the attack, the Bearfighter bought down its powerful paws on the other Zoid, crushing its chest.

A warning beep sounded in Sandra's cockpit. Before either of them could move, a flight of missiles crashed down around the Liger, staggering it under the impacts. Looking around, Sandra couldn't see the source of the attack. Indirect fire, she thought. Clever.

She turned to the Bearfighter and shouted at the pilot. "Get out of here!" She had some idea of what she was facing and how to deal with it. However, she couldn't do it while protecting another Zoid. "I'll clear a path to the northern exists. You loop around and try to find some of the others!"

"Gotcha." The Bearfighter's pilot replied as it shifted down to its quadruped mode, before lumbering off.

Turning back to the hills, Sandra looked over her targeting scope. Quiet for the moment, she thought. Now to give him something to look for. She charged in the rough direction she thought the missiles were coming from. As she watched, five small blips appeared on the screen, accompanied by the incoming missile warning. "I thought so."

She opened up the Liger's throttle, turning it towards the path of the missiles while activating the energy shield. The missiles crashed down onto the shield, the blasts absorbed without any further harm to the Liger.

The Zoid leaped over the hill, coming down in front of another, similarly sized machine. Unlike the liger, it was dog-like in configuration with white armour. A Konig Wolf, she thought. And I bet I know who's inside it.

-

Starling's operation was going well so far. She'd dispersed the bulk of her troops into the network of canyons to ferret out the enemy. Her Goreheks' advanced radar and comms systems meant that she could watch the battle unfold and monitor her troops in action. And should she be attacked, the two Arosaurers that were guarding her should take care of most problems.

As soon as she could link up with Tsuneo's forces, they could squeeze the enemy between them. Outnumbered, outgunned and out manoeuvred, they didn't stand a chance. She would be a hero for having the initiative to go in alone and take on the enemy head on. And if she captured that pants-stealing maniac, that would be better.

At present, the three of them were in a particularly deep canyon, almost completely in shadow. Despite the conditions Starling was still able to monitor the situation. Things were going well.

Suddenly her scope went wild with blips and electronic 'snow.' For an instant she panicked, then she realised what it was. The enemy was jamming her. Normally, the Goreheks' sensor set was good enough to cut through most interference or jamming, however the background 'noise' from the Brown hills was making things worse for her. She adjusted a few settings on the sensors, increasing their range of scan. Try to outdo me, will they, she thought. I'm way too smart for that.

Suddenly a warning alarm went off in the cockpit. Something the sensor screen lit up with new contacts. Panicking, she realised that there were Zoids all around her. "We're surrounded!" she shouted.

"What?" One of the Arosaurer pilots replied. "I can't see them!"

"They're hidden or camouflaged or something!" She replied. "There's one right ahead!" She opened fire with the Goreheks' twin cannons on where her sensors were telling her was an enemy contact. The two Arosaurers followed her lead, blazing away on a vague shape half-seen at the end of the valley.

"Stop!" She shouted. Surprisingly enough, there was no sign of any activity from any of the other hostile Zoids around her. "Let's see what we're dealing with. Check it out, Private."

"Yes Ma'am!" One of the two Arosaurers cautiously walked to the end of the valley, nervously looking around as it went. It bent down to inspect the wreckage of their would-be attacker, looking like it was inspecting its kill. "It's an Elephantus, ma'am."

"An Elephantus?" That didn't make any sense. They hadn't captured any of those in the town, and she doubted that any mercenary would use such an outdated machine. "That's weird."

"A wreck. I'd say it's been here a while, I'd say." The pilot replied. "Centuries, even."

"What would a wrecked vintage Zoid be doing out here?" She asked.

The other Arosaurer looked around. "There's more of 'em." He replied. "I think a battle took place here a long time ago and nobody came to clean up the debris."

Damn, this would be harder then she thought. "So they're all just wrecks." Starling said as she adjusted her sensors to filter out the deralict Zoids.

"Not all of them." A female voice butted in to their communications. Before anyone could say anything, there was a loud shot. The Arosaurer at the end of the canyon suddenly keeled over, a gaping hole blown in its back.

"Hi! Remember me?"

-

Reven's Storm Sworder dived at a hapless Pteras, its pilot frantically trying to get out of her way. Before she could strike, however, there was that same strange sensation in the back of her head, as if there were someone behind her trying to get her attention. Figuring what it was, she suddenly pulled back on the stick, abandoning the Pteras for the moment.

"It's back!" She called over the communicator to Z-One. "I think it's on my tail."

"Yeah, yeah. I hear ya." He replied. "I'm coming!"

Reven rolled the Storm Sworder over, diving back towards the desert floor. Her opponent seemed to be behind her, opening fire with their beam cannons as they went. The sky behind her was filled with fire, shots scattering around her.

Now to see if she could get an advantage.

Pulling out of her dive at the last second, the Storm Sworder streaked along just above the desert floor, kicking up a massive dust cloud behind it. "Come on." Reven muttered, almost daring the other Zoid to follow her.

Another few shots passed by her. So they are, she thought. Whoever this pilot is, they're very brave, or very stupid. Possibly both. She jinked the Sworder around, her low altitude limiting the degree that she could move. "Now."

"I see it!" Z-One's voice came loud over the communicator. "Got him!" Above and behind the pair of them, the Sinker opened fire with its forward cannons, sending shots at a blurry shape picked out in the dust. Small blasts peppered the desert floor before one apparently hit the enemy Zoid. "Gotcha, sucker!" He shouted.

Glancing over her shoulder, Reven could vaguely make out a blurry shape behind her. For an instant, when Z-One hit it, there was a flash of a pale green colour behind her before it vanished again. The fire form the enemy Zoid stopped for the moment. "Now, he'll pull away." She thought.

Counting to five, Reven yanked back on the stick, following her best guess of the enemy Zoid's path. Z-One's Sinker also followed her, matching her course. "Now fire!" She shouted. The pair of them opened fire, filing the air with beams form their Zoid's cannons. Neither knew where the enemy Zoid was, but they had their own approach to hitting it; they'd fill the air with fire until they got something.

Surprisingly enough, they didn't hit a thing.

A warning beep echoed through the Storm Sworder's cockpit. "He's on our six!" She shouted as a swarm of missiles flew at the two Zoids. Breaking away, Reven could see the source of the attack; a Pteras with a Bomber unit.

"That can't be them, could it?" She asked. The mystery invisible attacker had come close to matching her Zoid's performance, something that a Pteras could never manage. It couldn't be them, could it?

The Pteras dived at Z-One to make another attack, only to be struck from behind by a pair of beams. The small Zoid faltered in their air before diving, its pilot baling out. Looking behind her, Reven could see the bright red and yellow shape of the Battle Cougar, swooping down on another Zoid.

"There you go, my fair lady." Its pilot began. "One less obnoxious admirer."

The Battle Cougar sped past, opening fore on a second Pteras Bomber as it went. Reven watched it go, quietly fuming. The nerve of that pilot, she thought. Still, it gave her an idea.

-

Starling stared at the inert from of the Arosaurer. "What…" she began. "Who are you? How did you get on this channel?"

"You know who I am." The voice replied. "I am the you that is within you."

"What?" Starling replied.

"I am the one who doesn't follow orders." It continued. "I am the one who charges off across the landscape when they're told to stay put. I am the one who leaps before she looks."

"You're insane!"

"I know." The voice continued. People often say that."

"Corporal?" The Arosaurer pilot spoke up. "What's happening."

Starling flicked the channel to the voice off for the moment. "I've got them talking, whoever they are. I'm trying to locate them by tracing their signals." She glanced around at the monitor. It was still showing a number of blips form the dead Zoids. She watched them carefully, in case they moved.

"Don't you remember who I am?" The voice continued to ramble. "Think carefully. Think very carefully. Think." It trailed off. "Piyong!"

"Pyiong?" Starling asked.

The side of the second Arosaurer's neck exploded, right next to her Zoid. The crippled Zoid pitched over, coming to rest right next to her cockpit.

"Hello!" The voice continued.

Starling turned her Zoid around, opening its throttle up to full, and ran. "Get away from me!" She shouted as the Zoid sprinted, presumably away from the unseen attacker. "You're not going to get me."

"Oh, but I already did." The voice replied. "Last night, I think it was."

The Goreheks stopped dead. "You." Starling hissed.

"Me!" The voice replied in a cheery way.

"You're the one who stole my pants, aren't you?" She asked. "Who humiliated me in front of my commanding officer. Who made me look like a fool in front of all my colleagues."

"She remembers me!" the voice shouted in a cheery way.

"I'll kill you for that!" Starling shouted. "Show yourself!" The Goreheks turned around, opening fire on the nearest 'blip' to it. A pile of twisted wreckage that had, long ago, been a Garius crashed to the ground. "Damn you!" She shouted.

"Piyong."

-

Vic grinned to herself as the Goreheks keeled over. That had been fun. Silly woman. How could she mistake this delicate figure of beauty for a man? It was an insult that demanded vengeance and vengeance had been fulfilled. Or something like that.

"Hey!" She turned to the Dimetrodon that she had been dragging around for the last quater of an hour. "Call Sandra. Tell her I bagged a boss monster."

-

Sandra wiped the sweat form her brow as she stared down at the Konig Wolf. Her Zoid and it had been fighting for… well, she had no idea how long it was, but it had been far longer then any of her normal engagements.

Most of her normal tactics were stubbornly not working against the Konig Wolf – it was faster and more agile then her, which made a lot of her usual "charge with the shield up and pray" tactics hard. It didn't help that the enemy pilot was, in her opinion, at least her equal in skill.

And I've got a horrible idea who he is, she mentally added.

Her only real advantage was to keep the battle close but not too close. The Konig Wolf's sniper rifles were powerful, but far to slow and clumsy to use at point-blank range, whereas most of the Shield Liger's guns were designed for close range use… and had a far wider arc of fire.

Desperation plan time, she thought. I do this far too often.

She ran at the Konig Wolf, shield up as per normal. At the last moment, however, she leaped out of the way and deactivated the shield. Sprinting up the side of the hill, she fired a long burst form the back cannons, raking fire along the Konig Wolf's side.

Unfortunately, her opponent figured what she was up to. He leaped to one side, taking his Zoid up the side of the same hill. Opening up the throttle, he looped around the hill and came chasing after her in pursuit. Damn, he's fast, she thought. And he's closing too.

A burst of fire from the Liger's tail gun was enough to throw him off for the moment. Yanking on the controls, Sandra forced Spud to come around to face her opponent. The Konig Wolf pilot likewise spun the Zoid around, putting a fair deal of distance between the pair of them. Before she could move, he launched his last volley of missiles at her.

Charging forwards, Sandra activated the shield to protect her as she went. The missiles impacted into the shield, leaving her unharmed for the moment. Using the missile strike as cover, however, the Konig Wolf leaped on her, its claws digging into the shield.

What does he think he's doing? She asked herself. Then she realised what it was. A red warning light came on, indicating that the shield's generator had overheated and was shutting down for safety reasons. Of course, as that then left her unprotected, the safety value of this was somewhat questionable.

The Wolf pilot had planned on this, she thought. To confirm this, it lunged again, the claws digging into the Liger's flank. Spud snarled in pain as she wrenched the controls around, trying to break free before the Konig Wolf could-

Too late. The Wolf reared back its head, electricity crackling form its teeth, then sank them into the Liger's neck. Electricity crackled across the Liger's body, overloading its systems. As Sandra watched, red lights flicked on all over her status board as systems either shorted out or shut down. The liger snarled and reared back, then slumped and staggered as its motors overheated.

One chance. She grabbed the weapons control and thumbed the trigger for the impact cannon. There was a loud explosion as the cannon's bursts hit the Konig Wolf at point-blank range, blasting the two of them apart. Sandra was knocked back into her control seat, momentarily dazed.

Blinking, she looked around. Spud was lying on his side, a situation he seemed to get into rather often. The Konig Wolf was nearby in a similar state. Checking over the status board, she could see that several of the systems were coming back to green status, now that the Wolf was no longer overloading her systems.

The Konig Wolf stumbled to its feet, clearly a little worse for wear. The Zoid loomed over her for a moment, as if it was ready to attack, before steam began pouring from vents all over its body, especially its back behind the cannons. What the frelling hell? She thought, and then realised what was happening.

When the Konig Wolf uses its charged bite attack, it tends to overheat. And that pilot had been pushing his Zoid pretty hard already. Gotcha, sucker. Well, I will if I can actually get up.

Spud staggered to his feet, the legs feeling particularly sluggish and roared at the Koenig Wolf. Much to her surprise, the wolf staggered around, and began to run. As it went the two tubes on its back began belching out thick black smoke in order to cover its rear.

The Liger roared, more out of anger for loosing its kill the anything else. "Easy, Spud." She muttered. "You're in no shape to go chasing wolves right now." And I don't feel like hounding the pilot any further, she added.

A beep from her communicator interrupted her train of thoughts. She flicked it on to see a young man with a beard that he'd probably grown to try to look older or tougher, or both. "Hey, uh, my name's Alvin, I pilot the Dimetrodon."

"I noticed." Sandra replied. "What's up?"

"The Gunsniper pilot asked me to tell you that she's captured one of their leaders. Or something like that." He shrugged. "I think she's a little weird." He added as an aside.

"Really?" Sandra pretended to be surprised.

"Looking at it, the enemy seem to be buggin' out on us." He continued.

"Good" Sandra replied. "Okay, tell everyone to meet up at grid ref…" She opened up a map on one of Spud's displays. "F4H1. They're to get there as soon as possible."

"F4H1?" He replied, a little confused. "That's, uh, Flood City. You sure about that?"

Sandra nodded. "Definitely. I'm planning a little surprise for our friends."


	45. Crowd Control

Bed Springs

The Wastelands

1400 Hours

"So" Dezalg began. "Explain to me what exactly happened." Around him, all activity in the command centre seemed to have stopped as everyone turned to watch.

Bob swallowed. This was not going to go down well. "W-well, sir, Starling and I were waiting with our squadrons at the northern end of the Brown hills as per instructions." He began. "However, when captain Tateo failed to report in, she decided to go in to support his forces, sir."

"And you did not try to prevent her?" Dezalg asked, patiently.

Now for the hard part, he thought "I, ah, tried to dissuade her from her course of action, sir." He explained. "However, I decided to keep to my orders and maintain my squad's positions as per your orders, sir."

"I see. So you made no effort to support her forces?"

"I believed that sending in my troops after hers would merely exacerbate the situation, resulting in the loss of my units" he explained hastily. "I felt that the chances of the operation succeeding were better if I remained in place as per the original plan."

"And you didn't attempt to discourage Starling from her course of action?" He asked.

"Yes sir." Bob replied. "However, she refused to listen to reason, even when I explained our orders to her in detail. She seemed to be completely impervious to sense."

"So you let her just march off into the hills, fully aware of what she was getting herself into?"

Bob froze for a moment. "Well, yes, that is to say, no, well…" He swallowed. "I was trying my best to follow my orders, sir." He hastily added. "For the success of the operation."

There was a long pause. "Bob, as a result of your inability to control your subordinate, this operation has come closer then ever before to complete failure." Dezalg began. "We lost a dozen Zoids in the canyons and five flyers, to the loss of three confirmed and one possible enemy. If that wasn't enough, captain Tateo's Zoid was badly damaged and is in need of extensive repairs."

"But…"

"As a result, they have escaped and have placed this operation in severe jeopardy of failing in its initial stage. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

He wanted to point out that Starling was a complete and utter moron who couldn't be trusted to walk in a straight line, let alone command an important operation. He wanted to point out that she had proven to be completely impervious to the ravages of thought and common sense and had pretty much gone out of her way to get herself into trouble. He wanted to point out that she was completely ill suited for this sort of operation, if not this line of work. Above all else, he wanted to point out that he had been copping the blame for everything that had gone wrong so far, despite the fact that none of it was actually his fault.

"No sir." He muttered.

"Good." Dezalg replied. "Despite this, Bob, I do need you. For the moment, you are to remain on active duty."

"Yes sir." Bob stammered out, glad that this was all that was happening to him.

"But understand this, Bob." Dezalg continued. "I'm doing this only because I need you right now. Screw up again and I will have you court-martialled for incompetence."

"Yessir" He nervously blurted out.

-

Flood City hadn't always been called that. Its true name was now long forgotten, buried along with the last of its inhabitants centuries ago. It was an ancient place, one of the first human-built cities on Zi. It had been built on top of a natural aquifer, allowing its people to gain access to a steady supply of water in what was an otherwise parched part of the planet.

Centuries ago, something had devastated the city, leaving it in ruins. Whatever had done it had been so powerful as to shatter the ground in places, exposing the aquifer to the elements and allowing it to flood the city in places. The city was now awash with water, which, ironically, was mostly contaminated and of no use to anyone.

Nobody ever came here. Nobody would want to. Anything of value had been looted centuries ago, leaving behind only empty rubble. Which is why Sandra had lead her newfound army there.

With their Zoids hidden amongst the rubble, Sandra had made a temporary headquarters inside a mostly-intact warehouse. Overhead, uncharacteristically dark skies could be seen through the numerous holes in the roof.

Eventually, everyone had made their way to the city. A quick headcount had revealed that they had lost four Zoids in the Brown Hills. Given what they had gone thought to get out of there, it was a surprisingly good result. Of course, it was still far short of what the army had at their disposal, a fact that was of some concern to Sandra.

They still hadn't ascertained exactly what the army was after here in the Wastelands. Fortunately, one of the things they had gotten out of the Brown Hills encounter was a prisoner who seemed to have some idea what was going on.

Sandra had taken charge of the prisoner herself. She'd wanted to do this as professionally and by the book as possible. She also had a certain degree of reluctance to letting a lot of the others near the woman, realising what they might do to force answers out of her. Instead, she'd set it up like a police interview. A table and four chairs had been set up inside a derelict office. She and Anna sat on one side of the table, while the woman sat on the other side. Oddly enough, Ryan had invited himself in and seated himself next to her.

"Let us begin with the simple stuff." Sandra said, glaring at the young woman.

"Corporal Jill Starling, 439218092/A" She quickly replied.

Anna and Sandra glanced at each other. "Mind if we call you Jill?" Anna asked.

"Corporal Jill Starling, 439218092/A" Jill repeated.

Sandra sighed. "Fine. Jill it is." She could tell this was not going to work. "So can you tell us what's going on here, Jill? Why are you here in the wastelands?"

"Corporal Jill Starling, 439218092/A" Jill repeated for a third time.

"We all ready know that!" Anna snapped. "You don't need to keep damn well saying it!"

"As a prisoner of war," Jill began. "I don't have to provide you with any information beyond my name, rank and serial number."

"That's all well and good." Sandra began. "But you really aren't a prisoner of war here."

"I'm not?" Jill asked.

"No." Sandra replied. "There has been no formal declaration of war. Your lot simply walked in and took over our frelling town. As far as we're concerned, this is an unprovoked act of aggression on your part." She glared at Jill. "So the usual rules regarding prisoners of war don't apply."

"Now we'd like to get some answers out of you." Anna began. "We'd really appreciate it if you cooperated with us and behaved in a reasonable manner. If you do that, it will be better for all of us. We don't want to harm you in any way. All we want is some help."

Jill turned towards Ryan. He whispered something in her ear, and she shook her head. He shrugged then turned back to Anna and Sandra. "My client wishes to make a statement." He began.

Anna and Sandra glanced at each other. "Since when has he been her brief?" Anna asked.

"Probably since she agreed to pay him by the hour." Sandra replied. "Still, maybe he can talk some sense into her."

They turned back to Jill. "Go on." Anna said. Ryan nodded.

"It has become clear to me that you do not have any authority, be it civil or military. Furthermore, it has become clear to me that your continued detention of me is in and of itself, a criminal act." She began. "As a result of which, I will no longer allow myself to be subjected to your questioning until such time as you can provide me with sufficient proof of your authority, if any. If indeed you are possessed of military authority, then I will demand prisoner of war status."

Sandra rolled her eye, while Anna clenched her fists. "Thank you for that, Ms Starling." She muttered. "If I could have a word with your brief for a moment?"

Ryan nodded. "Certainly."

The pair of them stood and left the room. No sooner were they out of the room then Sandra grabbed Ryan and threw him up against the wall. "What the frelling hell do you think you were doing in there, you big, fat, hairy, blood-sucking tool fairy?"

"I was hoping that by playing the part of her brief I could convince her to cooperate." Ryan replied. "However, she is proving to be somewhat obstinate and far more difficult then I had anticipated.

"Right. And the fact that she's paying you by the hour doesn't help either." Sandra muttered.

"If you must know, that statement was not my idea. I advised her to cooperate with you and make this as easy as possible."

"I'll bet." Sandra muttered. "Right, tell you what. You advise her that we're reaching the limits of our frelling patience and that if she doesn't cooperate, we may be forced to be a lot less polite and forgiving then we have been so far."

Ryan nodded. 'I'll see what I can do."

They re-entered the room where Starling and Anna were now glaring at each other. To Sandra's surprise, Anna had so far resisted the temptation to put Starling's head through the wall. Sandra and Ryan resumed their seats, Ryan turning to whisper in Starling's ear. Starling nodded then turned back to Sandra and Anna.

"I'm ready to continue." Starling began.

"Good." Anna said. "Now, Ms Starling, can you please tell us what is your mission here in the Wastelands, starting with the occupation of Bed Springs."

"Corporal Jill Starling, 439218092/A" She replied, slowly and deliberately.

"I'm sick of this!" Anna shouted as she stood up, slamming her hand down on the table. "We've been over this. The sooner you cooperate, the sooner we can get this all over and done with. Now will you please start using some common sense?"

"Corporal Jill Starling, 439218092/A"

"Argh!"

"Sit down, Anna." Sandra replied. "I think I can deal with this."

Anna sat, muttering. "She's either very determined o very stupid."

"Probably the latter." Sandra replied. "Anna, I want a change of questioning officers, if you don't mind."

"Anything will do right now." She muttered.

"Good." Sandra smiled. "Could you get Vic for me?"

Anna glanced at Sandra. "Uh, sure." She replied as she stood. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Trust me." Sandra replied. She was glad Anna was leaving. She seemed like a nice and rather decent person underneath her large and scary exterior and certainly wouldn't approve of what Sandra was about to do.

Anna left the room. Sandra turned to Ryan. "Do you want to get a drink or something?" She asked.

"I don't think it would be in my client's best interests for me to leave." He replied. Starling nodded.

"Here's twenty." Sandra passed him a note from her rather shabby wallet. "Get yourself a coffee or some sump oil or whatever's going."

"Well, if you put it like that," he said as he pocketed the note and left.

Jill and Sandra sat staring at each other for a long, quiet minute. Sandra was trying to figure her way around the situation. This had better work, she thought.

The door opened and Vic entered. Nodding to Sandra, she sat down next to her.

"Interview resuming at…" Sandra checked her watch. "Three PM, give or take. Vic Hagen and Sandra Blackmore present."

"Corporal Jill Starling, 439218092/A" Starling parroted.

"Hi there, Jill Starling 439218092/A!" Vic cheerily began. "How are your pants?"

-

Fifteen minutes later, Sandra called a meeting of her newfound command staff. "Thanks to Vic's efforts, we've managed to find out what exactly is going on here." She began. Next to her, Vic smiled a broad, cheery smile that made her only look more demented then usual. "Trust me, its big."

Around the table, all eyes turned to her. Anna in particular was giving her a rather angry glare, which suggested that what Sandra may or may not have done didn't sit well with her. Sandra couldn't blame her. Letting Vic loose on anyone would be constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Or it could be that she was angry that Sandra had gotten a result and she hadn't.

"Obstinately our enemy has come to root out any strongholds of a terrorist group known as A-X" Sandra began, not mentioning her recent run-ins with said group. She also noted the way Felix flinched. Thought so.

"So why did they over-run Bed Springs?" Ryan asked. "Unless they thought we were all evil terrorists or something like that."

I'll refrain from comment, Sandra thought as she considered some of the mercenaries she had met there. "The truth is that they are doing a 'clean-up' operation on an area of the wastelands, eliminating what they see as potentially dangerous elements. Mercenaries, bandits and the like."

"But why?" Anna asked. "Why now?"

"I'm not entirely certain." Sandra replied. "Jill Starling, our prisoner, was far from the most senior member of their command staff. But at the same time she gathered a lot of information while serving as their commander's communications officer. " She paused for a moment. This was the big one. "The UZN are trying to create a secure buffer zone in the wastelands that they can use to base troops in. Such a zone would be used to absorb the first strikes of an invasion form the Drakken empire or, alternatively, to launch an invasion from."

There was a long silence as what Sandra said sunk in. "So what can we do about them?" Anna asked.

"Running and hiding comes to mind." Ryan replied.

"Can't say I can argue with that sentiment." Felix added, then spat on the ground as if to emphasise the point.

"We can't run." Anna replied. "Where would you go to? You run now, they'll just hunt you down. We have to fight them."

"Anna's right." Rick spoke up. Sandra suspected that most of this big strategy stuff had gone straight past him, or that he had spent most of his time peering down Reven's front. Possibly both. "We can't let them walk in here and stomp all over us. This is our land-"

"It's a pile of Command Wolf Crap" Felix spoke up.

"It may be, but it's our pile of Command Wolf Crap." Rick finished. "And I, for one, intend to fight for it."

Sandra nodded. It was strange to hear such things from Rick who was normally the most casual person she'd ever met. But it seemed to have worked. "Based on the info we got from Jill, I can say that there's only the one unit in on this operation, the one we've been dealing with so far. We've already dealt them a number of blows. A big defeat may be enough to make the, give up on this operation."

"You sure the information from Jill is reliable?" Ryan asked.

Sandra glanced at Vic. "Very." She replied.

"Fine." He continued. "So what's the plan?"

"We make our stand here." She replied. "We can use the terrain to our advantage; hide snipers in the rubble, plan ambushes in amongst ruined buildings, conceal Zoids in the lakes, you name it. We can force the enemy to come to us, and then make him fight us on our terms."

"And what about their air power?" Reven asked. "They can still just bomb the place from the air."

Sandra turned to face her. "Well, it seems that so far you and your friend in the Sinker have been able to handle them. With better planning, and concealed anti-air support from the ground, you should be able to take care of any tools that come after us."

"Yeah." She replied. "I mean, of course I can. I guess there will just be more of them then before. No matter."

Sandra glanced at her. Something was bothering the mercenary pilot, but she clearly didn't want to admit it in front of everyone else. Despite the fact that she'd saved them, Sandra still didn't completely trust Reven. However, she'd let it drop fro the moment as they needed her as a pilot, if nothing else.

"I'll have to look over what we have and the intel we've got on the enemy, but I think I can put together something resembling a plan." Sandra finished. "So if nobody has anything else to add?" She glanced around the table. Ryan and Felix looked less than fully convinced, and Reven was clearly concerned about something (although it could have just been her hair) but there were no dissenters.

"Good." She said. "What I'll need is a better idea of what we have and what our pilots can do. I want each of you to go around the troops, talk with them and try to get what you can out of them. Once we have that, we can try to figure out some semblance of a plan." She looked around. "Thanks, everyone. If we can pull this off, we can make sure those tools won't bother us again."

-

She caught up with Felix outside. His Black Rhimos was outside, its back cockpit open to allow him to stuff supplies into it. "Preparing for the battle, Felix?" She asked.

"Ah, don't give me that crap, Sandra. You know what I'm up to." He snarled.

"Yeah, I can tell." She said, looking over the pile of provisions he'd stacked up. "You're running away."

"Got that right." He muttered. "You know that this is crazy, don't you?"

"You should be able to spot that." She said. "You used to be an expert in doing crazy things. Then again, you also used to be an expert in running away." He grunted a noncommittal response. "Especially when A-X is involved."

He stopped, and turned to face her. "You know, Sandra, that was a realty cruel thing to say."

"Yeah, but I can be a really cruel person." She replied.

He climbed down next to her, glaring as he went. "Come on, that was years ago." He said.

"Yeah, it was." She replied. "Some young tooly A-X agent realises that he's getting the flute up the back door from the bosses. So he steals a Maccurtis and swims away from them as fast as he can. In the process, he manages to become the first person to get away from A-X and live to tell the tale."

"Yeah yeah." He muttered.

"Course, now with the army crawling all over the wastelands looking for A-X agents, they'd probably love to meet a former one." She explained.

"I get the point." He muttered.

"Thanks." She replied. "Look, I know it's a bit cruel of me, but you're a good pilot in one of our most powerful Zoids. We need you." She glanced around. "Frankly, most of what we have is little more then rabble, and rather unwashed rabble at that."

Felix nodded. "I know where you're coming from with that." He said. "You need professionals here, something you're very much lacking in otherwise."

"Glad to have one aboard." She held out her hand.

"Thanks." He took her hand and shook it. "It's good to be working with you again."

"Even though I am a cruel, mean and heartless individual?" She asked.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

-

Looking up from his comic, Z-One saw Reven stalking into the makeshift Zoid bay with a filthy look on her face. This looked bad, he thought. Well, worse then usual. Putting his comic down, he jogged over her in order to catch her before she obliterated some unsuspecting target. "Something up, boss?"

"Sandra has some mad plan to beat the army and drive them off." She began. "She's managed to talk everyone into following her blindly. And I'm a vital part of it."

"Ah." He replied. "And you can't just tell her where to stick it?"

"Not without looking bad in front of everyone else." She replied. "Sandra basically goaded me into doing it, saying that I wasn't up to the task."

Z-One rolled his eyes. Reven's ego was always a problem. "Well, you think we can handle it?" He asked.

"Hmmm…" She walked around the bay, Z-One hot on her heels. "Ordinarily, with the forces we now have at our disposal, I'd say we could."

"But?" Z-One asked.

Reven looked around at the various flying Zoids in the bay. "However, there's a catch. That invisible Zoid,"

"Yeah, I can see that being a problem." He replied. "Nobody knows it's there, and when they do, they can't touch it. And it could dive into our attacks and blunt them before they start."

"Unless…" She began. "Unless we could convince it to make the first move…" She looked around, spying the bright red and yellow Battle Cougar.

Z-One had taken an instant disliking to its pilot, an obnoxious pratt called Derek Joshua. He seemed to be little older then eighteen and acted like the world revolved around his arse. He was an obnoxious arrogant womanising jerk who had quickly gotten on his nerves. "The Battle Cougar?" he asked. One of the most heavily armed flying Zoids ever produced, it had more firepower then most of the other Zoids in their forces.

"I have an idea." She walked over to one of the forelegs, where its pilot was checking some of the components. "Oh Derek?" She asked. "Can I have a word with you?"

Derek spun around, a smarmy grin on his face that made Z-One instantly want to hit him. "Ah, Reven my dear." He began. "How can I assist you on this otherwise miserable afternoon." He wasn't even pretending to look at her face, he thought. True, he's a little on the short side, but that's no excuse.

"Derek, I want to ask you a favour." She began. "As you probably are aware, there's plans for a big offensive against the military incursion."

"I have heard that, yes." He replied. "I'm to assume that the air forces are to play a vital part in that operation?"

Reven nodded. "Correct. Now so far, I've been leading our air forces into battle-"

"And a bloody marvellous job you've done of it, if I do say so myself." Derek replied. "Almost as good as some of my earlier efforts where it was just me against the wide, wild world."

Reven continued, trying to ignore his self-promotion. It wasn't easy. "Well, I was thinking that because of our obvious skills and the superior weaponry of your Zoid, you would be better suited to lead the attack then myself."

Something clicked in Z-One's head. And he liked it.

"Hmm…" Derek made an effort to look like he was considering it, when it was plainly obvious that he wasn't. "An excellent idea, my fair lady. Very well, I shall do my utmost to lead our forces against the spears and arrows of our foes."

"I look forward to it." Reven replied. "Until then…" She trailed off, turning to leave him behind. "I have other things to attend to." She walked off, Z-One following her.

"You know, that was a very mean thing you just did." Z-One said.

"I know." Reven replied. "But I think he deserves it."

"No arguments there."

-

"Well, she's either a genius or an idiot." Ryan began as he walked into the temporary hanger. "And I'm hard picked to figure out which."

"Who is?" Rand asked as he looked up form his Snipe Master's ankle joint. "Its not Tyesha, is it?"

"Of course it isn't!" She snapped as she angrily strode over to him. "Why would he say it was me?"

"I was just asking!" Rand nervously replied.

Ryan avoided saying anything that could result in him getting snapped in half like a twig, instead trying to go back to the original topic. "No, it's Sandra", he explained. "She seems to think that we can take on the entire army single-handed."

"Good." Tyesha replied, a manic grin spreading across her face. "I say we bring 'em on. I've been wanting a good fight for ages."

"What?" He asked.

"Since they came into my town and locked me up and took my Zoid, I've been busting to break some heads open." She continued. "And it looks like this is the chance I've been waiting for."

Ryan blinked for a second, then remembered who this was. Since he'd known her, Tyehsa had been nothing but a trouble seeker. He had often wondered why he still worked with her. Possibly it was because, when she wasn't snapping people's necks, she was quite attractive. Or, possibly because if she felt she'd been slighted, she would hunt him to the ends of the earth.

"So we're going to fight them?" Rand asked

Rand had also wondered why he still worked with Rand, given that he was a moron (Or, as Tyesha usually called him, Rand the Joke). The only reason he could think of was that he gave Tyesha someone else to hit, which she often did.

"Yes of course we're going to fight, you moron." Tyesha hissed.

"Well that's okay then." Rand replied. "Just so long as you weren't being stupid or jumping to conclusions or anything like that."

Ryan turned his back and walked away quickly. Sandra may have one less pilot by the time this is over he thought. And it may not be me.

-

Dezalg looked down at the map on the briefing display table. It had been zoomed out somewhat, reducing most of the towns and features to little more then small black dots with labels. Several sites were highlighted in red, indicating likely locations of their enemies. But which one was the right one, he thought.

They're not going to go anywhere that's populated, lest the news of their presence there gets out and gives them away, he thought. That immediately makes things a lot easier. He looked across the map, noting all the small towns in the area. Nor are they likely to go too close to any of them.

Looking around, he took in the local geography. This particular area of the wastelands alternated between flat plains and abrupt peaks, with often-treacherous foothills or canyons around them. They've already tried to loose us in a canyon once, he thought. And nowhere else that is nearby has the disruptive qualities of the Brown Hills. Their leader is clever. I very much doubt that he'd rely on the same tricks to conceal his forces twice in a row. Several of the sites on the map looked promising, particularity the supposedly haunted Spiral Mountain, but he dismissed them all outright.

So what does that leave? He wondered. Man-made sites that were now abandoned or otherwise unpopulated. There was a recently abandoned mining complex at Bad Post, but the town still had a considerable, if dwindling, population. Besides, the company were working to restore the mine to operational condition. No, that wasn't it.

The town of Rusty Springs had been recently reduced to rubble after being attacked by a Death Stinger. The surviving members of the population had moved on, but there were still scavengers to be found on-site. And any one of them could decide to turn them in. No, they wouldn't do that. They'd have to pick some site that had been abandoned for some time.

He looked across the map. A single nearby site came up, an ancient temple complex known as Lazwegaz. It had been abandoned for centuries now, and was about as remote as they came. At the same time, it would require some degree of doubling back to get there. And recent intel suggested that the site had been attacked in the last two months, so it may not have been entirely secure.

Chris Canyon had been home to a group of bandits operating out of an abandoned Whale King hulk. They were all gone now, apparently flushed out by mercenary forces. That looked promising, but at the same time it was a considerable distance away, at the very limit of what they could reach realistically.

That left… he looked over the map. Only one place came up; an ancient city that had been devastated by war and abandoned centuries ago. Sitting atop a contaminated aquifer, it was avoided by everyone. Anything that was there to take would have been stripped out centuries ago.

In other words, it was the perfect hiding place.

"Bob!" He shouted.

"Yes sir?" Bob replied nervously.

"Get everyone in here now!" he shouted.

Within minutes, Tateo, Kavirov and Remmon were with him, along with Bob. "We have them." He enthusiastically began.

"Sir?" Remmon asked.

"Our enemy." He replied. "Those mercenaries that have been stubbornly resisting our forces thus far. I believe, with almost complete certainty, that they are hiding in the flood city ruins, here." He pointed to the map.

"Then we have them." Remmon replied.

"Kavirov, what is the status of your Zoid?"

"Fully operational, sir." She replied.

"Have you discovered why the enemy have been able to attack it twice now?"

"I put it down to a combination of chance and blind luck on their part, sir." She replied. "Its systems all appear to be functioning normally."

"Good." He replied. "I want you to perform a reconnaissance flight over Flood City. Report everything you find."

"Yes sir." She replied.

"Tataeo, how is your Zoid faring?" He asked, turning to face him.

"The repairs are almost complete," Tsuneo replied. "Most of it was just resetting systems that had overheated and shut down. It should be fully operational soon."

"Good." He replied. "I want all our forces ready to move out as soon as possible. If Flood City turns out to be their hiding place-" (There was no doubt in his mind) "-then we will make it their last refuge." He looked over his officers. "Dismissed."

"Yes sir!" The three of them saluted and left.

Dezalg looked over his map. He had never failed an operation before, he thought, and he was not going to fail now. Not against such undisciplined rabble. He had graduated at the top of his class at Pendross' most prestigious military academy. His forces had always been the victors in exercises, regardless of the situation. For him, defeat was almost unthinkable. He must do everything in his power to ensure victory, he thought. Not just for his own sake, but for the sake of the UZN.

"Bob." He began.

"Yes sir?" Bob nervously replied.

"Have my Zoid made ready"

-

In their makeshift command centre, Sandra poured over a hand-drawn map of Flood city. It was made from survey data taken by a brief Storch flight around the city and, as a result of the increasingly unseasonable weather, was missing a few patches. But it was complete enough for her to work from.

"Okay…." She began. "The enemy have primarily Godos, Guysacks, Command Wolves and Arosaurers. However, those are backed up by Cannon Tortoises, right?"

"That's what we saw back in the town." Anna replied.

"And they've also got a Gunbluster, a Koneig Wolf and a Gordos." Rick added, handing Sandra his sketchbook. He'd managed to make a rather complete record of their forces during their entry to Bed Springs. "Although they may have more in reserve."

"Unlikely." Anna replied. "They would have sent more then the one Koneig Wolf after us."

"Doggie" Vic added.

"We've cleaved through their Pteras squadrons." Reven noted.

"Cleavage." Vic again added, sniggering.

Ignoring Vic, she continued. "Most of those have Bomber units."

"And I saw some Hammer Heads in the town." Rick added.

"They'd likely be used for ground attack." Sandra noted. "They use the Pteras squads to cover them. We'll need you to take them out before they can make their runs, Reven. Think you can manage that?"

"Well of course." She replied, sounding far more enthusiastic then she had earlier. "You just leave them to me."

Sandra wasn't completely convinced, but she decided to go along with what Reven was saying for now. "Given the enemy's current location, their forces and considering the terrain, they'll most likely approach us from the south." She indicated on the map. "This would be the best approach for the Gunbluster and Cannon Torts, neither of which are any good on broken ground."

"So we concentrate our defences there." Anna commented.

"No." Sandra replied. "What we're going to do is put up a token defence on the south wall that's aimed at taking out as much of their artillery support as possible. This will lure them into the city proper." She indicated to the maze of destroyed roads, collapsed buildings, lakes and the like that made up Flood City. "Once in here, they'll be forced to split up their forces."

"And we can take them out on much more even numbers." Felix replied.

"And use the local terrain to our advantage." Ryan added. "We sneak attack them as they pass, lurk in optimum firing positions, snipe from higher ground, you name it." He said.

"I like to camp." Vic added, then sniggered again.

"That's the gist of it." Sandra replied. "We force the enemy to fight us on our terms. Most of the people we have here are used to fighting in small groups. We lack a cohesive command structure; we're more a bunch of individual tools then a full-fledged army." She looked around. "By allowing our pilots to fight the way they're used to fighting, they'll do better then if they stood as a massed force."

"And the enemy have to fight on our terms, rather then theirs." Ryan said. "Makes sense."

"So what are the particular assignments?" Anna nutted that out.

"I've identified what would be key approaches for the enemy. I'm still nutting out who to put where, but II think I've got a good idea." She glanced at both Anna and Ryan. "Although I've got a special task for both Rand and Stuart."

Anna and Ryan exchanged a worried glance. "You sure about that?" Anna asked. "I mean, Stuart's a little, um, enthusiastic." She said. Sandra knew that he was a hyperactive moron with an easily excitable trigger finger, but she left it off.

"And Rand's a joke on two legs." Ryan finished.

"I know." Sandra said. Which is why I need them."

-

Thus far, Z-One had been pretty much left out of the planning stages of whatever it was that was going on. That didn't bother him that much. He was a professional minion, and his job was to follow orders. Reven had pretty much dragged him into this, and as a result he felt reasonably obliged to follow her instructions.

However, he wanted to have a better look over their forces, just so he could get a better idea of who he was working with and what they were capable of. It could help if he needed to come into close air support and didn't want to run the risk of shooting friendlies. Or, if needs be, he would know who to run away from.

At the moment he was strolling through the various makeshift Zoid hangers, taking a mental note of what they had and who seemed to be piloting them. Nobody paid him much attention. They rarely did.

Stepping into another hanger, he began mentally checking off the Zoids. Redhorn, Dibison, Black Rhimos, Shield Liger, Command Wofl AC, Gunsniper…

Hang on a minute, he thought. A Shield Liger, a Command Wolf AC and a Gunsniper with a Wild Weasel pod, all together as a group. It couldn't be…

He walked over to the Shield Liger. While it was one of the newer production models, it bore numerous scars along its flanks that spoke of many battles and many parts being replaced. A large gash along one of its forelegs particularly caught his attention. Although a lot of the equipment had been replaced, largely obliterating the scar, it still spoke of the Liger being cut up by something big.

Something like a Death Stinger's claws.

It couldn't be.

He glanced at the Command Wolf AC and the Gunsniper. All three of them together, he thought. It has to be.

A few hurried minutes later, he was at Reven's side, puffing and panting. "Boss, one question."

"Hrm?" Reven replied, paying him only minimal attention.

"Sandra…" He puffed out. "She pilots a Shield Liger, doesn't she?"

"Yes, yes she does." Reven replied. "So?"

Z-One smiled under his mask. Scott, he thought. Scott, Kyle the Wolf and Hal the Gunsniper. Perfect. "That's great." He replied. "It means that we're going to win."

-


	46. Grand Final

Flood City

The Wastelands

0630 Hours

Sandra stood on the back of Spud's head, looking out over the plains with a pair of binoculars. Nothing so far, she thought. They're out there, though, and I know they're coming soon.

Overhead it was unseasonably dark, with thick grey clouds covering the sky. Usually at this time of year it would already be hot in preparation for a scorcher of a day. This morning, however, it was cold and dull with not much chance of it improving. The weather seemed to suit Sandra's mood, she thought grimly.

Her communicator headset beeped. "Sandra here." She began. "What's happening?"

"It's Reven." The mercenary pilot replied. "I've sighted the enemy's air force and I'm moving to engage."

"Right." Sandra replied. "Any sign of their ground troops?"

"Looks like it. They're south of your location, heading straight for the city."

I thought so, Sandra said to herself. It was a strangely comforting thought, it meant that her planning had been spot on. "Right, take out their air cover. We'll handle the ground troops."

"Right." Reven replied and closed the link.

A drop of rain splashed onto Sandra's face. "We're committed now." She thought as she walked back to the Liger's cockpit. No turning back. No second chances. No alternatives.

Now we fight.

-

From the cockpit of her Hammerhead, Lieutenant Junko Onishi did a quick check around her. No sign of any enemy Zoids so far, she thought. That was a relief. Hopefully she could launch her missiles and then be out of there without any interference.

An attractive young woman with long, dark hair, many had said that Junko wasn't suited for military life due to her somewhat jumpy and nervous disposition. But she'd persevered, if only just to prove what she was capable of doing if she put her mind to it. Certainly it seemed to have paid off. Colonel Dezalg had entrusted her with this high-profile mission to bombard the enemy formation from the air. She felt she could succeed where Kaviroff and Tataeo, higher-ranked officers then her, had failed.

She knew the enemy had air support, specifically a Storm Sworder who's pilot had proved to be unusually lucky. Well not today, she thought. Her Hammerhead had enough firepower to blow a Storm Sworder out of the sky and still have plenty to spare for the bombing run.

Suddenly, her Zoid was shaken by an explosion. Red damage lights went off all over the systems status board. Glancing behind her, she could see a Zoid behind her. It wasn't, as she'd expected, a Storm Sworder. Instead, it was the far bulkier form of a Battle Cougar.

"Oh no!" She screamed to herself, immediately panicking. A Battle Cougar, while slower and clumsier then s Storm Sworder, was still faster then her Hammer Head. And it carried a lot more firepower then she did. She opened up a com link. "Kaviroff, come in! This is Onishi! I'm under attack!" She jerked the controls to the right to avoid another volley form the Battle cougar. "Help me!"

-

Above the cloud layer, Kaviroff waited for the signal to attack. It seemed harsh, but her plan to use Onishi as bait was, to her mind, the best way to draw out the enemy's air power. Being designed for underwater use, the Hammerheads could absorb a lot of damage before going down, certainly a lot more then a Pteras. Once the enemy had engaged the Hammerheads, her squad could move in and take them out while they were distracted.

And hopefully this would give her a good shot at that damnably lucky Storm Sworder.

"Kaviroff, come in! This is Onishi! I'm under attack!" Junko's panicking face appeared on her comms screen. "Help me!"

That was the signal. "Sit tight, Onishi." She replied. "We're on our way." She closed the link and opened a new one to the rest of her Pteras unit. "All units, move in."

The squad dived below the cloud layer, emerging behind the Hammerhead formation and the expected enemy presence. Much to her surprise, rather then a Storm Sworder, a Battle Cougar, presumably the same one that she'd seen earlier, was chasing Onishi's Hammerhead. Of the Storm Sworder, there was no sign.

Damn, no time to waste. She dived at the Battle Cougar, opening fire on it at near point-blank range. Unlike the Sworder, the Cougar's pilot didn't seem to be blessed with the same blind luck. The shots raked across its back, tearing through the wings and fuselage of the Zoid. For an instant, it seemed to be out of action, wobbling in the air and diving. However, the pilot managed to regain control.

The Battle Cougar screeched in pain as its pilot tried to veer away from her. No chance, she thought. Her Zoid was far more agile then it could ever be. Matching the Cougar's path, she prepared for a second volley to finish it off. However, before she could fire, her own Zoid was hit.

Checking her rear monitor, she could see the source of the attack. A silvery shape had descended from the cloud layer, diving at her from behind. The Storm Sworder. The enemy's leader had used the Battle Cougar as bait to lure her out. Very clever.

Now to see if their luck would hold when they had the advantage.

-

Reven laughed to herself, admiring her own brilliance while trying to figure who was dumber, Derek or the enemy pilot. Derek had gladly acted as bait for her attack, while the enemy pilot had fallen for it, hook like and sinker.

She thumbed the trigger on her beam cannons raking fire over the space where she thought the enemy zoid was. There was at least one explosion, then a brief glimpse of a green… shape near where she hit. It was as if the enemy had suddenly appeared, then vanished out of existence.

The enemy Zoid turned away, desperate to avoid the fire. Reven followed it as best she could, squeezing the triggers down as she went to keep up a continual stream of fire. For a few seconds, it succeeded. Then the lasers needed to power-up again, being unable to maintain full power for too long before overheating.

She desperately glanced around for some sign of the enemy. She could ill afford to loose it now, she thought.

"Boss, below you!" Z-One's voice came over the comms link. "Check it out at four o'clock low."

She glanced down, trying to figure out what Z-One was saying. Then she saw something. There was an empty space in the air where the rain abruptly stopped falling, never reaching the ground. A space that suggested a body with a pair of wings…

Perfect.

She pulled back on the stick while easing back the throttle, the Storm Sworder rising and dropping behind the shape. Waiting for a moment, it became clear to her that the enemy pilot wasn't aware of what was happening. Perfect. She dived at the shape in the rain, firing again. Several shots hit it before the pilot veered away.

As it went, something happened. Its form waived, then shimmered into existence. It resembled the Storm Sworder, but smaller and a light teal colour. "A Raynos!" Reven shouted. The predecessor of the Storm Sworder, the Raynos was carried more weapons, and was rather close to the Storm Sworder in terms of performance. But not close enough., Reven thought. Let's finish this.

Realising he had been discovered, the enemy pilot dropped his Zoid down to just above ground level, and opened up the accelerator. "No escape for you this time, Reven shouted, and closed in on it. The enemy Zoid junked out of the way and turned north, heading straight for the city.

-

Sitting in the cockpit of his Gunbluster, Alan Remmon studied the wreckage of the city before him. Its outer walls had managed to survive whatever had taken out the rest of the city relatively intact, while the buildings beyond hadn't. From what he could see, it was little more then a jumble of concrete and metal, with the odd partially intact structure beyond that. The rain only seemed to make the place more desolated and dismal.

A beep on his control panel informed him of an incoming message. He activated the link and was greeted with the face of communications sergeant Bob. "What's the word, Sargent?" He asked.

"We've lost contact with captain Kaviroff." Bob replied. "In addition, most of lieutenant Onishi's Hammerhead squad is out of action. The rest are falling back."

Remmon swore to himself. The air support would have been very, very useful to the ground troops for their attack on the city, and for keeping the enemy airpower of their backs. Now they would be out here and exposed. That and he was rather attracted to Kaviroff.

"What's Dezalg's orders?" Remmon replied.

"Begin your attack." Bob replied. "Clear a path for the main force to enter the city, then continue your bombardment to flush out the enemy."

"Affirmative." Remmon replied, then closed the link. He looked around at his Cannon Tortoise squadron, then turned back to the city. Most of his pilots were young recruits, with very little battlefield experience. Today would be an education for them. Now it was up to them to bring these rebels to heel.

"Attention students!" He liked to call his squad his class. He felt that the battlefield was the ultimate classroom of any military theory. "Today we learn Remmon's first rule of urban combat. Do any of you know what that is?"

There was a resounding silence from the students. "No sir." One of them, finally spoke up.

"The first rule of urban combat." He continued. "Is remove the city."

The Gunbluster dropped its energy shield and squatted low to the ground. The twenty-odd cannons on its back all opened fire at once in a devastating volley of fire directed at the outer section of the city. Explosions tore through the centuries old structures, pulverising concrete and steel into dust. A huge swathe of the city was reduced to rubble in a matter of seconds.

"And that's how you do-"

He was interrupted as a shot hit the Gunbluster, digging into the generator spikes on the left side of the head. The Zoid shook in place, red lights going off across the status board. Remmon frantically checked his systems status. Not good. The section of shield around the head was down, and the left foreleg was crippled. He was an easy target for a second shot.

"Sniper!" He shouted. He activated the Gunbluster's long range imaging radar, but got nothing. "He's concealed in the ruins, bearing 305 degrees." He was taking a guess, based on what his computer could work out about the trajectory of the round. "All units, fire!"

Behind him, the Cannon Tortoise unit opened fire, their massive mortar cannons lobbing shells into the ruined city. Remmon poured on fire from his own Zoid, desperate to eliminate the attacker before he could strike again.

-

From a vantage point hidden in amongst the ruins, Rand Cadfael watched the enemy group. His shot on the Gunbluster hadn't taken it out as he'd hoped, but it had crippled It. Leaving it for the moment, he surveyed the others. Mainly Cannon Tortoises, he noted. These should be easy.

He was glad that Ryan had chosen him for this mission and not that other sniper woman that hung around with Sandra. Ryan had told him that he had Special Qualities that made him a Natural Choice for this mission. He was glad to know that Ryan appreciated him and what he could do. And besides, that Vic woman was a little weird to his mind.

He looked back at the Gunbluster. It had managed to drag itself more facing in his direction. Behind it, all the other Cannon Tortoises had their stabilisers down and were firing. He wondered what at.

Then there was a whistling sound from overhead. He wondered what that was too.

-

On the other side of the rubble, another Zoid pilot watched as the Gunbluster and Cannon Tortoises turned away from them and started bombarding a different part of the city. It meant that their attention was distracted long enough for him to strike.

The rubble shifted as the massive black form of a Dibison emerged from underneath it, climbing up to a peak on top of the rubble. "Range… check." Stuart began as he surveyed the enemy group. "Elevation… check. Angle… check. Wind velocity… check." He grinned a particularly manic grin. "Fire! BANG! BANG BANG BANG! BANG!"

The Dibison bellowed as its seventeen back-mounted cannons fired of sequentially, saturating the area around the enemy Zoids with fire. Several rounds struck the Gunbluster before it could out its shield up, apparently disabling it. "Woo-hoo!" Stuart whooped as he observed the damage. "Let's do it to 'em again! BANG!" Again the Dibison fired, this time spreading its fire across the cannon tortoises.

"Hey Anna!" Stuart shouted into the comm. Link.

"What is it?" she replied, angrily.

"Their artillery is outta whack!" He explained, badly. "It's all taken out like… BANG! And BOOM and…"

"I get the picture." Anna replied, trying to remain calm. "What are the rest of their forces doing?"

"We got a mixed bag of Godos, Guysacks and Arosaruers heading towards the city. You want me to churn 'em up too?"

"No." She replied. "You're too exposed now that they know you're there. Fall back into the city for the next stage of the operation."

"Aww…" He began. "Ah spit. Sure thing, Anna." The Diboson clambered down from its perch, heading further into the city itself.

-

"What's happening there, Bob?" Dezalg asked.

Bob almost recoiled form the comms screen in shock. So far the day had not gone well for their forces. True it was still early in the day, but he very much wasn't liking the way things were shaping up. And telling Dezalg was one of the last things he wanted to do.

"Er, it appears that Remmon's force has been largely, uh, taken out by the enemy." He began nervously. "They appear to have come under a heavy artillery bombardment. Remmon's Zoid is disabled, and the others are falling back."

"I see." Dezalg began. "And the source of the attack?"

"We're not sure, but it may have been a Dibison. It does seem to have withdrawn for the moment." Bob replied.

"Right." Dezalg ordered. "Bob, I want you to lead the ground forces into the city proper. Call in the remnants of Kavirov, Onishi and Remmon's units to support you if you need to, but I want that city taken."

"Yes sir!" Bob replied as the link closed. Great. He'd been 'promoted' to field commander. He knew exactly where this was going.

-

The first column of Godos managed to reach the city without meeting any further resistance form enemy forces. Dezalg had suspected that they'd pull away form the walls and concentrate their forces in the centre of the city. With virtually no air or artillery cover available, the only way to root them out would be to go in there and meet them face to face.

The first obstacle they face was one of the many "lakes" formed in the city by the ground subsiding. A large body of polluted water, there was no apparent way around without excessive backtracking. Seeing no way around it save for going straight through, and with no immediate sign of the enemy, the commander ordered his squadron to move through the lake.

The first pair of Godos slid down into the lake, finding themselves thigh-deep in water. Cautiously moving across the waters, they signalled the all-clear upon reaching the other side. The commander proceeded down to the lake, the rest of his unit following close behind.

As the squad moved, they were unaware that they were being watched. Half the squad had made it across the lake before they realised that something was amiss, and then they were too late. A trio of Zoids, a black and red Heldigunner, a Barrigator and a Stealth Viper emerged from the waters, opening fire on the squad before they could react. Several Godos went down, collapsing into the waters before they got a chance to fire back.

The rest of the squad turned ponderously to face their attackers, only to watch as the three of them slipped below the waters again. Somebody opened fire, scattering shots across the surface of the lake where their enemies had been, but to no apparent effect.

For a moment, there was silence. Then there was an explosion that sent the Godos at the far end of the lake collapsing forwards into the water. At the other end there was a snapping and tearing sound as the Barragator emerged, grabbing a Godos in its jaws before dragging it under.

"Out of the water! Now!" Somebody began shouting. Chaos reigned as the squad tried to clamber up the banks at either end of the lake, Zoids pushing against each other and stumbling over one another to be the first to get out. The unseen attackers managed to get a few more before they reached the relative safety of the bank. Now, however, the squad was split into two groups with no easy way to reunite the two.

-

Sandra had thought that Flood City was possibly the most dismal place she had ever seen. After the Dark Continent, and the ruins of the Blackstar city, that took some doing. The rain, however, now seemed to be making the place feel even worse. Great. She was facing certain death in the cold and rain in the middle of a ruined city. It couldn't get much worse.

Alvin Kibbey, the enthusiastic young Dimetrodon pilot interrupted her train of thought. "Hey Sandra. Got some news for you!"

She sat up in Spud's cockpit. "What's up?"

"A squad of Godos met the lake defences." He reported. "They're scattered across the city and are trying to regroup."

"Right." Sandra replied. "Our losses?"

"None yet confirmed amongst the ground troops, but I think that they may have gotten Rand." Alvin replied.

Better then she had expected. "Right. They're in the city. Tell everyone to go to phase three of the operation." Sandra began. "Alvin, I want you to go to full jamming mode. Disrupt the enemy's communications as much as you can. They're far more dependant on command structure then we are anyways."

"Sure thing." Alvin replied as he began flicking switches. "They still have at least one Goreheks in the field. He could pose a problem."

Sandra shook her head. "I've already taken steps to take care of any comms-tools they may have." She smiled. "Call Anna and tell her to be ready. They're about to get a faceload of carpet from those tooly boys across the river."

-

For not the first time, Ryan asked himself how he'd gotten himself into this situation. He'd agreed to help Sandra with her breakout plan. That was fair. He'd joined the mass Zoid stampede out of Bed Springs for his own protection, so that was fair. And then Sandra had suggested that they all stay as one big happy group and fight the army together. Okay, that wasn't what he'd planned on.

Then he realised that Tyesha was all for more fighting, and could snap him in half like a twig. That seemed fair after all.

So now his Helcat was crawling through the ruins in its stealth mode, trying to evade detection. This wasn't the easiest thing in the world, given that he was currently trying to sneak up on a Zoid with one of the most sophisticated sensor systems ever developed.

The other thing that didn't make this job any easier was his partner. While his task was to locate the Goreheks, their job was to eliminate it. Their Zoid unlike his, was not invisible or sensor-baffling. True, it was a rather quiet running and elusive design, but not as much as he could have liked it. No, that wasn't the problem he was having.

"Hey." His partner's voice filled his ears. "You found it yet?"

No, the problem was that she was a nut. And he felt confident in saying that after hanging around with Tyesha for longer then he cared to think about. Whereas Tyesha was insane in a violent, shouting and breaking things way, Vic was… yeah.

Then again, he thought, I could have Rand as my partner for this mission instead. And that would definitely end badly.

"Not yet." He hissed back. "Now stay quiet. They can follow our transmissions."

"Okay." She muttered and closed the link.

Finally, he thought. He'd briefly considered abandoning her and making a run for it, but then he also realised that Sandra, and others, would not be impressed with that idea. And the pain of what would happen if they caught him would be far, far worse then anything that could happen here.

A series of blips appeared on his sensor screen, slowly moving towards him. He quickly opened up the Helcat's throttle, the small Zoid skipping out of the way of the oncoming machines and ducking behind a ruined wall. Even though his machine was invisible, Ryan saw no reason to take unnecessary risks.

He waited there for a minute until they passed, identifying the Zoids as they went. It was a Goreheks guarded by a pair of Arosaurers. They'd split off from the rest of their forces, probably so that they wouldn't be in the immediate frontlines of the fighting. In all likelihood, they hadn't expected anyone to infiltrate this far behind their front lines.

"Vic, this is Ryan." He hissed over the communicator. "I've sighted the targets."

"Keen." Vic replied. "Now for the fun."

-

Bob poured over the Goreheks' sensor displays, analysing the information. Long range scans had covered a good portion of the city, producing a three-dimensional "map" of their surrounds. He'd then used other information from various other sensors like magnetic resonance scanners, infrared, ultraviolet, electronic emissions and the like to highlight possible Zoids. The ones he could immediately account for had all been "tagged" and designated as friendly units. Now was where it got difficult.

The wreckage of the city made for rather broken terrain which could interfere with his radar returns. Additionally, all the metal from the ruined buildings, as well as a number of ancient wrecked Zoids, meant that he was getting a lot of false returns. He'd made his next task to "filter" them and figure out which ones were "bad guys" and which ones were just debris.

It wasn't an easy thing for him to do, but he figured he could handle it. He was an expert at this sort of thing. He' graduated with degrees in electronics and systems management, and had come at the top of his class at the academy as an electronic warfare expert. And, in his mind, he was far better at it then that idiot Starling ever was.

Suddenly the "map" on his screen jumped, with static popping up on the screen. Several of the icons blurred with additional images appearing. Aha, he thought. Electronic warfare. Very clever. "Hold here!" He shouted across the communicator to this two Arosaurer escorts. He'd need time to work this out.

The Goreheks' crystal radar set analysed the jamming frequencies, looking for telltale signs like the radar bands and frequencies it was hopping across, and bought the info up on screen. Scanning over it, Bob quickly analysed the data and deduced that the likely source of the jamming was a Dimetrodon. Probably one of the newest models with the enhanced electronic warfare capabilities too. Difficult.

Well, for anyone else. Bob personally relished the challenge. If he could cut through the enemy jamming – which he had no doubt that he could – then that would be a great benefit to their operation. He could have single-handedly ensured their victory. Dezalg couldn't scream at him for that. Yeah, he thought. Go me. Go Bob!

Flicking a few switches, he watched as the sensor screen cleared for a moment before breaking into static again. For an instant he thought he saw a sensor blip near him, but it vanished into the clutter. Probably just electronic junk or noise, he thought. Or some old Whitehead that was rotting in the rain and giving him grief.

"Oh yeah." He said to himself as he flicked over another switch. "I am a Tomydamn electronic ninja!" He continued, getting more exited as he went. "I am so damned good! I am a frugging genius!" He dramatically pressed down on a single button on the screen. The local area scan cleared immediately.

Oddly enough, the blip form before remained.

Brow furrowed, Bob pressed a few buttons on the control panel. The screen refreshed, with the lone blip remaining. How odd. It couldn't be a single attacker, could it? They'd never make it this far in past his forces, and they wouldn't send one person after him and his two escorts.

Would they?

An explosion shook the Goreheks, throwing Bob around in the cockpit. Red lights flashed all over the status board as just about every system went offline at once. Badly damaged, his Zoid slumped forwards, its forelegs collapsing underneath it.

He flicked on the communicator, only to be greeted by silence. It seemed that his whole Zoid had shut down form just a single shot. Looking outside, he could see the two Arosaurers looking around trying to find the source of the attack. Nothing.

Bob stopped. He'd just been ambushed and taken out of action in one shot. With him out, the unit's whole command, control and communications system was out of action. In an environment like this, their function was vital. And the enemy was jamming them.

He was going to get hell form Dezalg for this. Whatever the enemy had in store couldn't possibly be worse.

-

"Mission accomplished." Ryan began. "We located and eliminated the enemy command and communications unit."

Sandra was about to say something in reply, when Vic butted in. "He went bang, fell down splat."

I thought it was all sounding to normal, she mentally added. I'm just amazed that we've gotten this far. "Good work. You two get back here ASAP. Those tools are probably about to blunder straight into our defences. We're still outnumbered here, so we're gonna need all the warm bodies we can get."

"Yes sir mister boss person sir!" Vic replied cheerfully.

"Right." Sandra muttered. "We've managed to blunt their first waves to a degree, but pretty soon they'll be down on us like a bag full of carpet."

-

Watching out form his Command Wolf's cockpit, Rick could see a whole lot of grey and precious little else. The concrete rubble of the city blended into the dull and overcast sky, rendering the world in to a single monotone landscape. The whole look of it had impressed him in a rather stark way. He'd been resiting the temptation to pull out his sketchbook, however. He needed to remain alert.

His group consisted of his own Command Wolf and a handful of fast or agile Zoids. Their task was to launch hit-and run attacks on the enemy's forces in order to break them up before Sandra's main force fell on them. Or something like that.

A beep from his communicator grabbed his attention. "Heads up, Rick." It was Alvin, the kid in the Dimetrodon. Nice guy, Rick thought. But the beard definitely doesn't suit him.

"What's up?" Rick replied.

"Their EW support is down." Alvin explained. "And there's a bunch of guys approaching your squad. ETA of two minutes."

"Gotcha. Thanks." Rick replied and closed the link. His squad. His first command. His first big battlefield responsibility. He'd figured that it was one of the scariest things he'd ever done. Well, after facing down a very crazed Vic in a Deathsaurer. Okay, well, less then tat by a long way, but the point stood. Or something.

Right. Let's go. "Okay men, listen up!" He shouted into the comm. Link. "Our job is to distract and divert the enemy." Just the way he liked to fight, actually. "Are you ready?" There was a chorus of various affirmations in reply. "Go!"

The Command Wolf leaped out of hiding, sprinting down a narrow roadway while firing its top cannons. A Guysack was hit and staggered back, collapsing into a heap as he sprinted past it. Next to him another Command Wolf, this one coloured grey and black and carrying a single long-range cannon on its back emerged form a side street, firing on enemy Zoids with its trio of cannons as it passed.

None of the squad lingered. Passing by the enemy formation, they wheeled around to come back for another pass. A Rev Rapter, hissing and snarling as it went, leaped past Rick's Wolf and literally crashed down on an unsuspecting Godos, digging into it with its toe claws. Next to it, an Iguan sailed past on its booster jet, firing its cannons at other Zoids.

Rick wheeled the Command Wolf around again, firing into the enemy formation. A lone Arosaurer, the only one present, broke away from the pack to come charging at him. Rick skipped the Wolf to one side, dodging the fire form the enemy Zoid's guns. Close contest, he thought. The Arosaurer's performance was reasonably close to the Command Wolf's in most areas. Of course, Rick's Command Wolf was an upgraded model. That made a world of difference.

Breaking into a run, he charged towards the enemy Zoid, his course running parallel to its. This was a part of his plan; his guns traversed while the Arosaurer's were only fixed straight ahead. Unfortunately, he'd failed to figure on the enemy's thicker armour. Much to his surprise, it soaked the first hits form his cannon and remained charging.

Breaking its course, the Arosaurer veered straight towards him, roaring and firing its cannons as it went. The enemy pilot probably realised that Rick had him outgunned and was opting for close combat. Smart move, Rick thought. But not quite good enough. The Arosaurer lunged at his Wolf, jaws snapping. As the two Zoids closed, Rick fired the boosters on the Wolf's hind legs. The effect was enough; the Arosaurer's jaws snapped down on empty air as the Wolf leaped past. Not wasting any time, Rick swung around the cannons and fired into its back. The shots struck, knocking down the enemy Zoid.

"That was clo-" Rick began before a shot knocked him around the cockpit. Swinging the wolf around, he could see a Guysack emerging from behind a mound of rubble, using it to conceal its low profile. The enemy Zoid fired again, the shot this time going wide of Rick's Zoid.

And then something rather unexpected happened. A Hammer Rock dropped from the roof of a nearby building, driving its fist down on the enemy Zoid. The Guysacks' frame crumpled and shattered under the force of the impact, as the Hammer Rock rather nimbly leapt away. No sooner was standing then it had grabbed the Guysack and, much to Rick's surprise, lifted it over its head.

The Hammer Rock's pilot screamed before throwing the Guysack across a ruined wall, sending it straight into another one. The two Guysacks collided, then flipped and rolled in a tangled mess of limbs.

"Impressive." Rick muttered. He'd have to ask Tyesha if she wanted a part in the book. "Okay, people. We've done enough for the moment. Let's get out of here." He bought the Wolf around and steered it towards away from the centre of the city. Opening up the throttle, he sped away leaving a trail of black smoke behind him.

"Hey Sandra." He shouted into the comms link. "They're all yours."

-

"Just what I've always wanted." Sandra replied. She'd been waiting for this moment for some time now. Even though her Shield Liger was one of the fastest Zoids in the group, its sheer size made it hard to conceal. As a result, she'd had to delegate leadership of the advance group to Rick, who she had selected because of a simple lack of anyone better for the job. Fortunately, he seemed to have done well for himself.

The battle was going well so far. For some reason, however, that bothered her. It wasn't that things were going her way that was the problem. There was a nagging feeling that she'd forgotten something, or that there was something missing. For the life of her, she couldn't think what it was.

Alvin's report said that Rick's raid had worked. A number of enemy Zoids had broken off their advance to chase down his force. That meant there would be less of them coming at her at once, which was always a bonus. Rick should be able to bring his forces around to put pressure on their flanks and rear.

In the meantime, its up to us.

"Sandra?" Alvin began. "They're coming."

"Right." She replied, quietly. "Lets go."

The Shield Liger burst out from cover, accompanied by a Lidder and a Bearfighter. The three of them loped across an empty courtyard and onto a section of elevated highway that had remained standing despite all the years. Opening up her throttle, Sandra took the lead over the other two.

Turning a corner on the elevated road, Sandra spied a mixed squadron of enemy Zoids approaching. Time to be heroic again, she thought. Activating the shield, she leaped off the roadway down at the incoming opponents. Several shots bounced off the shield before the Liger landed and charged, roaring angrily as it went. Keeping the shield up for the moment, Sandra literally slammed into an incoming Arosaurer, the claws taring huge gashes in the smaller Zoids side.

Not wasting any time to observe the results, Sandra broke into a run. Dropping the shield, she fired the Liger's top and tail cannons at her opponents. As one, the group turned to face her, which meant that they were caught by surprise when the Lidder pounced and finished off the Arosaurer.

"Everyone, this is Sandra!" She shouted into the communicator. "Attack!"

-

Despite the loss of Bob's Goreheks, Dezlag still had a pretty good idea of what was going on in the city. His own Cannoneer Gordos was equipped with an extensive sensory and communications system that made it an excellent command platform. He paid careful attention to the reports he was getting form his various sub commanders in the field, taking note of each new development.

The situation was grim, but not entirely unsalvageable. When he first confirmed the enemy's presence in Flood City, he'd figured what kind of tactics they'd use. True, they were proving more effective then even he had allowed for, but it was still as he had expected. However, he had also devised his own counteroffensive. And, from the looks of things, it may just work.

A-X's hijacking of a Whale King two weeks ago had been the catalyst for all this. In truth, to his mind, it was little more then an excuse. The brass had been itching to do this for ages. He agreed. For too long the Wastelands had been an escape route for the desperate while putting many beyond the reach of the law. No more.

Someone needed to bring order to the Wastelands. He was going to be the one to do it.

-

The Raynos dashed through the city, following a daredevil course around buildings and through the streets. Reven remained on its tail throughout, determined not to loose her prey. The pilot was good, she thought. Almost as good as she was. She had been tailing him for some time now, waiting for the chance to finish him off. Unfortunately, that was proving harder then she had thought possible.

Lining up the Raynos in her sighs, she squeezed the trigger on the cannons. At the last possible moment, the Raynos veered to the right, ducking down another street. Reven's shots tore into empty buildings, filling the sky with smoke and concrete powder. Veering away from the buildings, Reven searched around for the Raynos. Nothing.

It couldn't have reactivated its stealth device, could it? She asked herself. She thought that it had been damaged or disabled earlier; the pilot had plenty of opportunities to use it earlier but hadn't. Unless…

There was a second side street further around form the row of buildings she had attacked. The enemy pilot had made a stupidly sharp turn and ducked in there. Of course… climbing, she looked over the course of the street. Collapsed or broken buildings blocked it in several places, meaning that there was one course that the Raynos could follow.

She pulled the Storm Sworder down to the other end of the concrete canyon and dived into the streets. As it went, the two blades on the Storm Sworder's wings extended into their battle position. Perfect. She'd come charging at him and he'd either have to risk being cut by her blades, or climb away and put her directly on his tail.

Yanking the controls, she made an impossibly sharp turn into the next street. Much to her surprise, there was no sign of the Raynos. Odd, she thought as she continued down the street, where's he hiding. Then she felt it, that sensation like there was someone breathing over her shoulder.

She pulled back on the stick, climbing steeply out of the streets. A burst of laser fire followed by a blue-green blur went past her. There it was, she thought. He'd climbed away and lead her into this trap. Very clever. The Raynos pulled up, and came charging at her fleeing Storm Sworder, firing its cannons as it went.

Veering away, Reven opened up the throttle, going into a vertical climb. The Raynos followed after her, but was unable to match her rate of climb, instead dropping behind, the pilot firing wildly.

"Now I've got you", she said to herself. Pulling the Storm Sworder into a loop, she dived back at the Raynos, blades extended. The enemy pilot veered away, dashing out over the city, trying to leave her behind. Not wanting to let him get away again, Reven followed, slowly closing the distance between the two Zoids.

The enemy pilot fired a short bust form their rear-facing cannons forcing her to swerve sideways to avoid the fire. Pulling up and to the right, she dived at the Raynos while firing her cannons. The enemy Zoid pulled away, but not before taking several more hits on the wing.

Not willing to loose this opportunity, Reven continued after it, the smoke trail form its damage giving her a clear indicator of tis heading. Opening up the throttle, the enemy pilot passed between a pair of tall towers before suddenly veering to the right. Reven followed, doing her best to keep her sights on the enemy Zoid. It suddenly swiched back, cutting across her path in a desperate bid to throw her off.

Not quite good enough. Reven swung her Zoid around, cutting directly across the Raynos' path. For a moment, the two Zoids continued on their paths. Then the Raynos slowly began to dive as its right wing tore free from the rest of the body. The Zoid rolled once before the canopy came away, the pilot's ejection seat following it.

Reven smiled to herself. Once again, her superior skills had allowed her to beat an enemy that held a considerable advantage. It was almost too easy some times. She banked the Zoid around to rejoin the rest of her squad, looking the city as she passed. She was glad she wasn't down there. In a way, she almost felt sorry for those poor fools.

Something on the northern edge of the city caught her eyes as she went. She banked the Storm Sworder around, making a pass overhead. No sooner has she passed, then she was on the communicator.

"Sandra? This is Reven." She began. "I think we have a problem."

-

"What's up, Reven?" Sandra shouted back as her liger skipped out of the way of a volley of enemy fire. "I'm very busy right now."

"There's an enemy-" Reven began, but the line suddenly went dead.

"Reven?" Sandra began. "You there?" Nothing. Damn. "Anna!" She shouted. "Cover me! Something's up!"

"You got it!" Anna shouted back. Her Redhorn swung around, spraying its massive autocannon across a group of enemy Zoids. Several were hit, while the rest scurried for cover.

"Thanks." Sandra replied as the Liger ducked behind a ruined building. "Alvin, you there?" She shouted into the comms link. "I've lost contact with Reven. See if you can raise her." There was no response. "Alvin?" She shouted. Again there was nothing. "Alvin? Tool!" Throwing open the liger's throttle, she sprinted away form the battle. "Anna, I've lost contact with Alvin." She shouted. 'I'm going to check it out. Hold your ground here for the moment."

"Right." Anna grunted in reply.

The Liger ran through the ruined city, Sandra for the moment forsaking cover for speed. Something had gone wrong here, and she needed to find out as soon as possible. I knew this would go wrong, she said to herself. If anything's ever going right for me then somebody comes along and kicks me in the back door for it. "Tool!" She finished out loud.

Rounding a corner, she slowed down the Liger as it approached the courtyard where she'd left Alvin. Peering around a comer, she could see the Dimetrodon lying slumped in the middle of the courtyard. Smoke was rising from the back of its neck. Looking around, she could see the Zatton she left to guard it in a similar shape.

It reminded her of the sort of damage she'd seen after Vic's attacks. Did they have any Gunsnipers or Snipe Masters, she wondered. She hadn't seen any… unless…

"Tool!" she opened up Spud's throttle, the Zoid leaping across the courtyard as the wall right next to where she had been standing exploded into a cloud of dust and debris. Not wasting a moment, she steered the Zoid into a street on the other side, rasing the shield as she went. That Koenig Wolf, she thought, I knew I'd forgotten something.

The Shield Liger stepped out of the side street and onto another former main road. Above her, Sandra noticed that the rain had stopped and some of the clouds were clearing. Squinting for a moment, she could make out a shape moving at the end of the street. A rather broad but still sleek black and white shape.

"It's you, isn't it?" he asked as the other Zoid approached.

"I'm afraid so." Tsuneo replied. The Konig Wolf approached, stopping about two lengths form Sandra's Zoid.

For the moment, the two Zoids stood there, starting at each other, their pilots not saying anything. Finally, Sandra spoke. "Don't tell me, it's your duty, right?"

"I'm afraid so." He replied.

"Yeah, I thought so." She muttered. "You know, another friend of mine said that to me as well. We were in the same situation too. And you know what happened then?"

"You fought."

"Exactly." Sandra said. "And it was one of the most painful things I have ever done." She wasn't going to mention exactly how she and Sel had resolved their differences. Nor was she going to admit how concerned she was for what may have happened to Sel after she returned home.

"I'm sorry." He replied. "But I have to."

Sandra nodded. She'd expected that. "Fine then. But don't think I'll go easy on you."

-

Rick's proximity alarm went off as his Command Wolf sprinted down a narrow road between two blocks. Throttling the Zoid back, he skidded to a halt just before colliding with another Command Wolf. This one was light grey and sported the standard weapons configuration. He also realised very quickly that it wasn't on their side or, for that matter, that it probably shouldn't have been so far north of their main forces.

The enemy Command Wolf snarled then snapped at his Zoid. He quickly back-pedalled, his Zoid shrinking back form the enemy unit. Just as quickly, he pushed the Command Wolf forwards, leaping at the other Zoid and striking it on the side of the cockpit with his Zoid's paw. The enemy wolf staggered long enough for Rick to strike. The Command Wolf snarled and then snapped at the enemy Zoid, sinking its teeth into the neck. The other Zoid yelped in pain, then whimpered and collapsed.

"Well that wasn't so tough." Rick said to himself. "Probably got a lucky hit and knocked out something important." He stepped out onto the main road, and looked around. He wished he hadn't.

Behind the first Wolf was about half a dozen others. All were the same grey colour and, he realised, all were hostile. "Crap." He swore. "Ah… hi guys…" He looked around. "Sorry about your buddy here… Ah hell!"

The Command Wolf broke into a high-speed run down the road, charging away form the enemy Zoid forces. Unfortunately for him, the enemy Command Wolves seemed to be ready for this, and set out running after him. Activating his communicator, Rick shouted into it. "Sandra! Or Anna, or someone!" He yelled. "There's a force of Command Wolves closing in on us from behind."

"From where?" Anna replied angrily, her signal cluttered with static snow.

"Uhh…" He thought as several beams went past him. "From the north side of the city. Behind us. The opposite side of the rest of the bad guys!"

"What!" She angrily shouted. "They have us surrounded!"

"Uh, seems that way!" Rick replied. "Look, I've got six of them on my tail right now-" another shot came perilously close to the cockpit. "-and I could really use some help about now."

"Damn, it, Rick, we're all busty right now!" Anna snarled back. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're still severely outnumbered here." The roar of her Zoid's beam gattling in the background seemed only to punctuate the point. "Where's the rest of your squad?"

"I lost contact with them while I was running." Rick replied. "I tried rasing the Dimetro, but there was no response."

Anna frowned for a moment, her brow furrowed with concentration. "Sandra said something like that too. I think…" She trailed off. "She's gone to check of the Dimetrodon!"

"Crap." Rick replied. "Right. I'll try to round up the rest of my squad and deal with these guys and-" Another shot came very close to the cockpit. "Do something."

"Hold them off as long as you can." Anna shouted. "We can't take more pressure on our flanks."

"Right. I'll see what I can do…" He swerved his Wolf into a side street, firing the back guns as he went. The shoots went wide, but it was enough to throw them and give him a minute's repose. "Come on…" He jabbed buttons on the comms panel. "Tyesha, anyone… where are you guys?"

He took the wolf around another corner, narrowly avoiding skidding into a building. Unfortunately, he knew that the enemy Wolves were faster and more agile then his Zoid was, a price of his improved armament. And he could only keep them running for so long. Throwing his Zoid around another corner, he headed back onto a major road, approaching a wrecked highway overpass.

"Blue!" A female voice suddenly shouted across his communicator. Behind him, one of the Wolves bucked and yelped, and then collapsed into a heap.

"Wha?"

"Blue!" It continued. There was the sound of a loud shot, and another one of the Zoids went down. "The pattern is blue!" The voice continued, another shot ringing out and dropping another enemy Zoid. "Cobalt blue!"

And then he knew what was happening.

"If Silverman is a Cyborg, what does that make you?" The voice added, firing again. This time, the shot fell just short of the Command Wolf. The enemy Zoid skipped to one side and continued to run, only to be hit by several shots coming out of seemingly nowhere. The Zoid tripped and fell, skidding to a halt on one side. Seeing that the numbers were now becoming more even, Rick bought his Zoid around. Firing his cannons, he finished off the downed Zoid.

The final one decided that he'd had enough of this situation and that now would be a good time to run. The Zoid turned around and broke into a run, only to be literally struck down. A Hammer Rock leaped from atop a ruined building, landing on the larger Zoid's back. Not wasting any time, the Hammer Rock began pounding the back of the Wolf's head and neck with its armoured fists. The Zoid thrashed around, unsuccessfully trying to throw off its attacker before collapsing.

"Tyesha." He began. "Good to see you. Uh… where are the others."

"No idea." She replied as the Hammer Rock leaped off the other Zoid's back. "I lost track of 'em. I think they're all dead though."

"Right." Rick replied. Looking around he could see Vic's Gunsniper casually sauntering out from the ruined overpass. "Hey there." He began.

"Doggies!" She replied. "They followed me home Can I keep 'em?"

She never changes. "Say, where's Ryan got to?" he asked. "You didn't kill him or something?"

"Me?" She replied with badly feigned innocence. "Never."

"Right next to you, actually." A Helcat appeared, de-cloaking as it walked around a ruined building.

"Right…" He looked around. "Thanks for the bail-out there."

"We'll try not to do it again." Vic replied.

"I'm guessing that your plan didn't involve a pack of Command Wolves, right?" Ryan asked.

"No." He admitted. "I, uh, didn't expect them at all. The problem is that there's more of them and they're probably going to be charging in on the flank of our main force." He looked over the three other Zoids. "At the moment, we're outnumbered enough as it is. What we need to do is try to intercept as many of the enemy Wolves as possible before we attack."

"While we're all tired and low on ammunition?" Ryan began. "That's-"

"A really super mega fantastically cool idea!" Vic interrupted. "I like it!"

"As do I!" Tyesha added. "So let's go and kill 'em all."

A comms window form Ryan popped up in the corner of his screen. "You know that they're both mad." He hissed. "And they're likely to get us killed."

"Yeah, but they're also both pretty skilled." Rick replied casually. "So I say we go for it."

Ryan seemed to consider this for a moment. "And they could probably both snap us in half like twigs." Rick nodded. "Right, why not. Let's go."

-

Sandra tried to ignore the sweat on her brow as she glared at the enemy Zoid. The cockpit seemed to have gotten very, very hot in the last few minutes. A quick glance at the control panel told her why. The Shield Generator was already overheating, and probably wouldn't stay up too long if she needed to use it again, which she suspected would be soon. Several other systems were showing in the red, which probably wasn't helping her situation any.

She could only hope that the Konig Wolf was doing as well as Spud was. She suspected that its more modern design and better armour meant that it was doing far better then Spud had been. So far, their exchanges had been surprisingly even.

"Ready to give up yet?" She asked over her Zoid's PA.

"Never." Came the reply from the other Zoid.

Thought so, she mentally added. Right. He's not going to use either the missiles or cannon at this range so…

She threw the Liger's throttle open, charging at the enemy Zoid while keeping the shield down. The back cannons fired, spraying bolts at the Koenig Wolf. As she predicted, it leaped to one side and kept charging. She kept firing, driving it further to one side as she went. That's right… I'm charging using my cannon's mobility to make a glancing strike… NOW!

The Liger suddenly veered straight at the Wolf, leaping at it with its claws outstretched. The enemy pilot clearly was having none of it, swerving his Zoid out of the way as she went. The liger crashed down, its claws shredding armour on the Wolf's already battered flank, but not doing much beyond that.

The Konig Wolf In turn broke into a run, using its better speed and coverage from its smoke launchers to escape from her momentarily. Sandra spun her Zoid around to see the Wolf standing at the end of the street, as if it was waiting for her.

Confident, planning something or what? She wondered. Time to find out.

The Shield Liger broke into a run, charging at the Wolf. The pilot stood his ground, firing of a quintet of missiles from one of the hip-mounted launchers. I'm not falling for that one again, Sandra thought as she jerked the Liger's controls to the right. One of the missiles struck it in the hip, shredding armour, while the rest tore up the street.

Before Sandra could continue, however, the pilot launched a second volley. This time, without any room to manoeuvre, she was forced to raise the Liger's shield. The missiles slammed into the shield and exploded harmlessly, followed by the shield's systems announcing an overheat and safety shutdown.

Safety my date, she thought. Whoever invented that safety shutout probably had never been in a battle for real.

As the smoke form the explosions cleared, she could see the Konig Wolf leaping at her, its jaws open. Not this time. She fired the back cannons, the beams stabbing into the Wolf's underside. The Konig Wolf instead crashed down on the Liger's back, before coming away with a horrible screeching of metal. Spud slipped and skidded, Sandra fighting to keep him upright as he went.

Checking the status board, she could see what had happened. He'd come down on her back, stripping away most of the armour there as well as taking away her main cannons. And I'm out of missiles as well, she added. Down to the tail gun and Shot cannons only. Spud slowly turned, roaring angrily as he went.

At the other end of the street, she could see the Konig Wolf. She knew she'd hit it a few times, but the damage didn't seem to be immediately visible. Please let it be something bad that doesn't immediately look it, she thought.

"You're a lot tougher then I'd thought." Tsuneo said. "You fight pretty well."

"I learned it all the hard way." She replied, desperate to keep him talking. The shield was slowly cooling and cycling back to full power. She didn't want to be caught without it. The longer he kept it up, them ore time she had.

Unfortunately, he didn't see it that way. The Wolf launched its last volley of missiles and then charged. Sandra twisted the liger out of the way, and then watched as the five missiles went well past where she was anyway. What was he doing? She asked. Then she figured it. A series of explosions behind her alerted her to what was happening, Huge chunks of concrete and metal came raining down around her Zoid. Forgetting Tsuneo for the moment, She concentrated on avoiding the debris.

Which is exactly what he had wanted.

The Konig Wolf leaped at her, again with its jaws open. At the last second she spotted him, veering spud out of the way. He Wolf's jaws snapped in the air near where her Zoid's neck had been moments before. Desperate, she bought the Liger's head around and snapped at the Konig Wolf.

The Wolf shirked back, then lunged again, snapping at her again. Not wanting to give him a chance, she leaped past him, breaking into a full run. As the Liger ran, she opened fire with the tail guns, more to discourage him than anything else. Skidding the Liger around, she arrived at the other end of the street.

Back to square one, she thought. Unless… She smiled to herself. There was a lot of ifs to this plan, but it might just work.

-

Anna watched as the Beam Gatltings shots tore into the enemy Arosaurer. The Zoid seemed to stagger in place for a moment, uncertain of what it was going to do before collapsing. Checking her status board, Anna could see that there were plenty more where those came from, while the Gattling was about to overheat and shut down.

"You want me to what?" Anna shouted.

"You heard me." Sandra replied.

"We're having a hard enough time here as it is!" She snapped. "I don't see what this is going to achieve."

"Trust me." Sandra said. "If I'm right, we may just be able to win this."

"And if you're not?"

"It probably won't make much of a difference in the long term."

Anna paused for thought. "All right." She grudgingly admitted. "But this had better work."

-

Sandra grinned to herself. She had one shot at this. Now to make it work. "Nice work so far." She began over the PA system. "You've got to be about the toughest opponent I've ever had." Madthunders excluded, she quietly added.

"Thanks." Tsuneo replied. "You fight very well yourself."

"Yeah, well, not as good as I could be." Sandra admitted. "I forgot my first rule of one-on-one fighting."

"Which is?" He asked.

"I'll tell you later!" She shouted as she pushed open Spud's throttle. Once again, the Liger charged at the enemy Zoid, roaring as it went. The Konig Wolf also charged, snarling as it bore down on her. So far, so good.

Sandra fired the Liger's impact cannon, the Wolf leaping out of the way as the shots tore into the pavement, sending chunks of concrete flying. Recovering, the Konig Wolf leaped at herm, trying to sink its fangs into the Zoid's body. The claws dug into the Liger's side, but before it could follow through with the bite Sandra bought the head around, the Liger snapping at the other Zoid's neck. Realising his position, Tsuneo leaped away from the Liger, the Wolf leaping to the other end of the street.

"So, what is it?" He asked.

Before Sandra could respond, the building next to the Wolf exploded outwards in a cloud of debris. A Black Rhimos charged through, its horn-drill spinning as it went. Without stopping, the Rhimos smashed straight into the side of the Koenig Wolf, its horn digging into the right rear leg and slamming the Wolf into the buildings on the other Side of the road.

Seeing her chance, Sandra charged at the damaged Konig Wolf. The Liger struck, its claws tearing large gouges out of the Wolf's already-damaged flank. The enemy Zoid yelped in pain and then collapsed, its leg unable to support its weight.

The Liger turned around to stand over the defeated Zoid's cockpit, the Black Rhimos behind it. "Don't engage in a one on one battle." Sandra replied. "Unless you have superior numbers."

Tsuneo laughed. "Makes sense to me." He said. The Konig Wolf's cockpit opened and he stood. "I think my Zoid's done for the day."

Sandra was about to say something, when a voice form across the street interrupted her. "Tsuneo!" It shouted. Glancing across the street, she could see a brown-haired woman stepping out form a gap between two buildings. She was young, attractive and, she noted, wearing an army-issue flightsuit.

The woman ran across the road, all but ignoring the Liger and Rhimos, before clamouring up to the K-Wolf's cockpit. Sandra couldn't hear what she and Tsuneo were saying, but she could take a guess. "I should have figured it." She muttered to herself.

"Something up?" Felix asked.

"No." She replied. "Thanks for the assist there."

"It's okay." He muttered. "Anna asked me to come over and help you out."

Sandra nodded, glad that her message had gotten through. "Now for the hard part." She muttered. "We should probably get back there." She turned the Liger around, ready to get back to the battle. Things could not be going well there.

"Just a minute." She heard Tsuneo call out. She turned the Liger around to see him standing in his Zoid's cockpit, something in his hand. The woman was sitting next to him on the side of the console. "Catch."

Sandra was surprised. What was he up to? Whatever it was, he figured his intentions were honourable. She opened the Liger's cockpit and stood on the Zoid's nose. She nodded to Tsuneo, who threw the object. Grabbing it, she took a look.

It was an army-issue field communicator. Tsuneo was probably issued this one to use if he needed to bail out of his Zoid in the field, like he had now. Why had he given it to her then?

"Use it." Tsuneo said, as if to answer her question for her. "It may just make all the difference."

-

Dezlag was still listening to the battle through the radio traffic. By his estimates, it had reached a delectate stage, virtually balancing on a knife-edge. The enemy had the advantage of larger, more powerful Zoids and superior defensive positions, but his troops were batter trained and outnumbered them. Too close to call.

A beeping form the comms panel indicated a message coming in, directed to him rather then the battlefield noise he'd been picking up. What had happened, he wondered. Had his field commanders all fallen? His soldiers should have enough individual initiative to work on their own… He activated the link. "Dezalg here. Go ahead."

An image appeared of a pale-skinned woman with short, scruffy black hair. A patch covered her right eye, with scars extending below it. She wore a grey jumpsuit, a common design used by mercenaries across the wastelands. "My name is Sandra Balckmore." He began. 'I'm the leader of the forces you are currently facing."

He nodded. "Go on."

"I took this communicator form Major Tateo after I defeated him." She explained. "I have him and captain Kaviroff here."

Was she bluffing, he wondered.

"At present, our two forces are evenly matched." She continued. "At this stage, the battle could go either way."

"I'm aware of this." He explained. "What do you want?"

"The immediate withdrawal of your forces from the Wastelands." She replied. "I'm willing to release these two and all the other pilots we've captured so far if you withdraw your troops. Additionally, I will allow your recovery teams the opportunity to recover your Zoids without interference"

Dezalg considered this. If Kaviroff and Tateo were out of action already, then it could make a big difference to his overall plan. As far as he could tell, the enemy's Shield Liger, Dibison, Redhorn and Storm Sworder were all still operational. Short of taking his own Zoid into battle, he could see no easy way to remove them. And in an urban situation, a large clumsy Zoid like a Gordos would be at a severe disadvantage. And indiscriminate bombardment of the city wasn't likely to achieve anything either.

"Very well then." He replied. "I am withdrawing my forces."

"Both here and in Bed Springs." Sandra stated.

And admit that this operation is unsalvageable, he said. Admit failure. He considered the options. But what else is there? I can withdraw now, or stay and fight a potentially longer and bloodier battle that I cannot grantee that I will win. Storm Sworder passed over his Zoid, its shadow falling across the canopy. Very clever, he thought. Show me your strengths while negotiating. Whoever this Blackmore person was, they were smart.

"Very well then." He said. "I accept your terms of withdrawal."

-

Dezalg had been true to his world. His troops had stood down from the fighting, quietly withdrawing. In turn, Sandra had ordered her troops to stand down and simply watch them for the moment. Fortunately, they seemed to be listening to her. When the recovery crews had rolled in, she'd allowed them to go about their work without interfering. She'd had enough fighting for one day.

Sandra had rallied the survivors of her forces in the middle of the city. A quick headcount had established that barely a third of their original Zoids were still functioning, and many of those would need extensive repairs. Dezalg had come close, she thought. Far closer then she'd ever admit.

She'd asked herself why Tsuneo had given her the communicator and allowed her to reach Dezalg. Possible it was because something she'd shouted at him had gotten through to him. Or maybe he realised that with he and that other woman's Zoids out of action, their odds of winning were substantially reduced.

She couldn't prove that Dezalg had followed through with his pledge and withdrawn his troops from Bed Springs. To her mind, however, it seemed likely. It sounded like the sort of thing a man like him would do. She wanted to send Reven in a flypast of the town later, just to confirm that they were pulling out.

"Remind me." Reven had replied. "What exactly did we get out of all this?"

"Not much." Sandra replied. "Our freedom, mainly."

"Hmph." The other woman replied. "That doesn't seem like much to me." Sandra rolled her eye. She should have expected something like that. "All right, I'll do your flyby."

At least she'd gotten that far. "Let us know as soon as possible what you find." Sandra said. "And thanks"

"Whatever." Reven casually dismissed her. "Come, Z-One. We have work to do." She added disdainfully.

Sandra watched the pair of them walk over to their Zoids and shook her head. Hopeless. She figured that a lot of the others would be less then thrilled about fighting for nothing tangible. At least Reven had been direct and tactless enough to say it to Sandra's face.

"We've got everything sorted out." Anna began as she walked over. "We'll do a full inventory when we get back to town, but I can say that we don't have that much of what we started with left. It'll take a long time for the Gustavs to haul all the disabled Zoids back to Bed Springs, however."

"Thanks." Sandra said. "Do you think we did the right thing?" She asked. "I mean, what we did."

"No doubt." Anna replied. "Regardless of what the military's intentions were, their methods were wrong. Hopefully they'll learn that much form what happened here."

Sandra nodded. "Thanks for sending Felix when you did. I think he made more of a difference then anything else."

"Tell him that yourself." She replied. "He's been sulking since the battle."

Looking around, Sandra could see that this was indeed the case. He was sitting on a lump of rock near his Rhimos, staring out into the ruined city and, more importantly, away from everyone else. Fine then, Sandra thought. She walked over to where he was sitting. "Thanks for your help earlier."

"You know what, Sandra." He began. "You're a really cruel, heartless and uncaring person. I can't believe that you conned me into all this." He turned to face her. "Thanks."

"I try." She replied. "I try."

"And I want my bagel." Vic added as she walked past. "With the cream, and the cheese and the creamy creamy cheesy cheesy. Cheesy cheesy."

Well that just ruined the moment completely, Sandra thought. Good to see things are back to normal.

-

On the outskirts of Flood City, a pair of Zoids were already on the move. No sooner had victory been declared then Ryan was out of there. He didn't want to be around in the off chance that Sandra got idealistic or the like. He'd loaded up his 'cat with a few sellable trinkets and set off.

Of course, Tyesha was right behind him. "Why'd it have to end, just when it was getting good?" She asked.

"Don't worry about it." He replied. "We're alive, and that's what counts."

"Hmph." The muttered. "And things were going so well too."

"As I said, don't worry about it." He paused. "Tyesha, have we forgotten something?"

"Nothing that I can think of," she replied.

Ryan refrained form the obvious joke. "Yeah, me neither. But I just get that impression."

"Whatever it was, it can't be important."

"Probably." He finished. "Let's get out of here,

On the southern edge of the city, a pile of rubble shifted a little, before slumping back into place. "Hello?" A voice asked. "Anyone out there?"


	47. Time and Tide

A Cave

Deep in the Wastelands

0200 Hours

Darth Pants put down the cutting torch and flipped up his protective facemask to get a better look at his latest creation. Breathing deeply, he basked in its gory and magnificence, as well as the fumes from his endless hours of work. Truly, he thought, this was his greatest creation ever. It was his masterpiece, his ultimate creation. The weapon that would deliver him the vengeance he had so craved.

The vision to create this one had come while he was re-arranging his collection of bowling balls. It had come rather forcefully, the sheer power and enormity of the thought striking him down and leaving him reeling in pain for hours. But, once he'd cleared his head, he realised what he had to do.

No sooner had he purchased the required materials for this project then he'd gone straight to work. So powerful was the vision that he was pursuing that he hadn't stopped for anything while he worked. Nothing could possibly deter him from completing this, what surely was his greatest creation ever.

He remembered all the Zoids he had created in past. While powerful, each one of them had small failings that had ultimately lead to their destruction. That would not happen here. This machine was far, far greater then any of those. What was it his master, the man who had taken him in and taught him all the secrets of the Darth said to him? He tried to recall those words.

"Wax on, wax off."

No, that wasn't it.

"Remember, my student. Become one with the Zoid. See into its core and realise its hidden inner potential. You are the tool that will bring that potential out, and bring the Zoid to its true form."

Yes, that was it. He remembered the first Zoid he'd ever created, the one his master had entrusted him to complete. He had been given a Madthunder, the largest Zoid ever to walk the surfacer of the world. His task had been to bring out its true form in the vision his master had received. And true, while all he did was paint its upper side white and its underside black, it was still a great change.

Now, he thought. Now the circle is complete. I am a true Darth. This is my ultimate creation, one that, in a way, invokes the spirit of the first. Nothing will stop me now. "I will have my revenge!" He shouted out to the empty cave, before busting out into maniacal laugher.

Grid S2F-1

Dark Continent

0900 Hours

De Lyon looked up at the massive Zoid looming over him. Around him technicians were hard at work on it, adapting it to suit his purposes. However, for all he cared right now, they were irrelevant.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Opening up his mind, he concentrated on the Zoid. He could feel the power within it, power unlike any other Zoid on the planet. Power enough to destroy anything that stood in its path. Power that he now controlled.

From what he'd gathered, it was an ancient Zoid, one that had existed on this world for far longer then the human colonists. Its mind spoke to him of ancient times, strange places and visions of things he couldn't even begin to comprehend. Perhaps its true, original creators, he thought. Did they know that this machine would far outlive them?

He wondered how it would compare to that creature they stored back in the city. Like this machine, the red Deathsaurer was powerful, and it seemed to have existed for centuries before they found it. However, that machine had proven to be a failure to them, almost completely uncontrollable. Nobody had been able to control it, save for that one woman. And she was insane to begin with.

Could he tame it like he had tamed this beast, he wondered. Possibly. It could be interesting to find out.

"Excuse me, Major." Captain Sturm, his aide, interrupted his thoughts.

"Yes, captain?" He asked, turning around. The Zoid was still there in his mind, but for the moment he had other things to think about.

"The techs report that both Drillgin units are installed and ready to use." He stated, flatly. "As you predicted they were compatible with the Grade-up weapons ports on the Zoid's back."

"I thought so." He replied. The Drillgins were old construction tools that were found in the ruins of the city, probably left there by the earlier human inhabitants. By connecting them to the Zoid's power system, he could dramatically increase their power, which would be perfect for what he needed. "And the other unit?"

"We're adapting it form the mounting we used on the Storm Tiger." Sturm explained. "However, the larger size of the Zoid means that we'll be able to greatly increase the capacity."

"Good." He replied. "Will it be enough for what we need?"

"The calculations suggest that it will." Sturm handed him a clipboard. "The technicians are adapting the device now, and it should be ready within twenty-four hours."

"Anything else?"

"Yes sir." Sturm replied. "We have a report form Agent Collins." He handed Dezalg a sealed folder. "It would appear that Collins has located his objective."

De Lyon quickly thumbed through the report. "Excellent. Have the Zoids made ready to leave as soon as the modifications are complete. I'll prepare for the next phase of the operation."

"Yes sir." Sturm replied, and departed.

De Lyon turned back to face the black Zoid. Soon, it would be all over, he thought. Soon.

Bed Springs

The Wastelands

1800 Hours

In the weeks since the abortive army takeover, Bed Springs had returned to normal. No effort had been made to clean up the damage done during the breakout. Few people noticed that a handful of buildings had more holes in them then usual, and the few who did rarely cared. Otherwise, it had gone straight back to how it had been beforehand. While there were a few less mercenaries then there had been before, things were pretty much back to normal.

Okay, so 'normal' was a relative term, but never mind.

None of that mattered to Sandra today. Today was her least favourite day of the year. She'd already spent much of the afternoon avoiding everyone else. Her plans for the evening involved locking herself in her room, sleeping and making doubly sure she avoided everyone.

She cautiously approached the front door. The last thing she wanted to see right now was Rick being irritatingly friendly to her on this one day of the year. No, it was better if she stayed quiet and avoided everyone.

The door swung open with a distressingly loud creak. Damn, she thought. Should have tried sneaking in through the back. The back door was rarely locked and often left open to keep the house cool. It wasn't like they had much to steal anyway. Besides, most locals knew to avoid the place where Vic lived.

She cautiously peered inside the doorway. Nothing. Good. So she should be able sneak upstairs and…

"SURPISE!"

Sandra turned towards the living room. Much to her distress, there were a number of people gathered in there. She could instantly make out Rick and Vic, as well as the looming form of Anna. Squinting, she thought she could see Z-One lurking in a corner. A quick glimpse also revealed that the battered wreck of the coffee table was crowded with part food. Great. Just great.

Somebody dragged her into the room before she could respond. Too late, she realised that she was trapped in the middle of the room surrounded by well-wishers with no possible escape route. Just where she least wanted to be on today of all days.

"Happy birthday, Sandra!" Rick shouted with more cheer then she thought he could muster.

"Uh, thanks." She replied.

Anna gave her a bone-jarring slap on the back. "We felt that after you did so much for all of us, we should do something for you in return." She explained. "And besides, this happens only once a year."

And that's why I try to avoid it, she mentally added.

Novo Zemalya

Dark Continent

1930 Hours

The Black Dragon was a popular watering hole for off-duty soldiers. Located near the main military facilities, it was very close to both the Whale King shipyards and the main living quarters. Run by veterans of the service and catering specifically for soldiers, it was one of the few places where those whose lives revolved around the military could relax and be casual without bothersome civilians getting in the way.

Tonight was one of its quiet nights. Much of the military had been on reserve duty of late, and as such were expected to be ready for action at any moment. There had been a nebulously declared 'escalation' in the readiness state, but no real reasons had been given.

For Sel's unit, however, it was another night off. Since their return from Chronos, they'd been assigned primarily to reserve duties. For some reason, Sel wasn't surprised. She'd almost expected that to happen. Even though she had succeeded in retrieving the Quentin Journal, her unit had spent far too much time 'outside' to be completely trusted. And she had learned far, far too much.

"Jobbed you!" Bekka shouted from one of the pool tables. Dancing around, she waved her cue in the air, presumably in celebration of another victory. The look on Alex and Bob's faces confirmed her thoughts. At least they're happy, she thought. But for how long? She had put her trust in Rose not to tell anyone about what had happened in the subterranean city. But at the same time, she knew that her former best friend would probably betray her the moment it was convenient.

"Something up?" Matt asked.

She glanced over at him. "Just thinking." She admitted. "About things."

"You're worried about them, aren't you?" He asked, glancing over to the pool table.

Sel nodded. "They should be allowed to know everything." She said. "But yet, at the same time I don't want to put them in the sort of situation that we're in." She glanced at Bekka. "Her especially. Her mother's position could make things difficult."

Matt nodded. "It's your decision." He said. "You're the senior officer. But do understand that, whatever you choose to do, I will support you."

She smiled. "Thanks Matt. You're…" Dare she say it? Probably not. "I've come to see you as not just a second and an advisor, but as something of a… a friend. Your support in the last few weeks has been very important to me." Well that was a total mess, she thought. Why do I have the courage to charge into enemy fire and defy everything I was raised to believe in, but can't say something to my best friend?

"Oh yeah." Bekka continued, dancing around the table. "Uh-huh. Who's the queen of the table?"

"Not me, thankfully" Alex replied.

"And that's an image I could live without." Bob added, putting his cue down. "Third game in a row. I give up."

"Don't be such a sulk." She replied, pouting. "You may get lucky eventually."

"Whatever." Bob replied. "Back in a minute."

Alex dropped himself down onto one of the chairs near the pool table, only to have Bekka seat herself next to him. "So how are you going?" She asked.

"No different to how I was when you last asked." He replied. "Except for a little more humiliated."

She nodded, sipping at her drink. "Mind if I ask you a question?"

"You already did." He replied, grinning.

Bekka scowled. "Seriously, Alex."

He relented. "Sure. What's up?"

She looked back up at the ceiling. "Have you ever really, really loved someone?" She asked. "I know it's a stupid question, and you don't have to answer it."

He seemed surprised. "Once." He replied. "It was a while ago though."

He shrugged. "She wasn't the person I thought she was." He answered. "I thought one thing and she thought another thing and…" He smiled, glancing at her heavily tattooed bare arms. "Well, as I said, it was a while ago."

"Oh." She seemed to be a bit confused. "I was just wondering because I know this guy and I like him and he likes me and…" she fumbled a bit with what she was saying. "Except it's kind of complicated because we can't see each other often and…"

"I'm sure it will work out." He said. "Trust me on this. If you really feel that way about each other, then I'm sure you'll be able to figure out a way to make it all work. Whoever he is, he's a lucky man."

Bekka nodded. "Thanks, Alex. I just… I just wanted to talk to someone about it."

"Its not a problem." He said. "You, me, Bob, we're friends. If there's something bothering you, you can always, always come to one of us. Seriously."

She just nodded. "Cool. Thanks."

"Excuse me." Bob began, looming over the pair of them. "But I think it's time for me to get you both back for the last three games."

Before she could say anything, Sel interrupted them. "Excuse me, guys." She looked around. "There's something I need to tell the three of you. Something important."

The three of them looked at each other. "What is it, commander?" Bob asked, instantly sounding like he was on duty.

Sel glanced around at the three of them. "What I am about to tell you is confidential. Strictly speaking, there are people far higher up then me who don't know it."

"In which case," Bob began, "We should probably adjourn to a more secure locale."

"Exactly." Sel replied. "Meet me at my quarters in…" she checked her watch. "Half an hour." She looked at each of them. "This… this may not be easy for you. But I want to thank you all now for putting your trust in me." They nodded, quietly. "Thanks."

With that, Sel turned and left. The others stood, quietly, watching the door as if they were half-expecting her to return. Finally Bekka spoke up. "So what do you think it is?"

"I have no idea." Alex said. "And, for some reason, that worries me."

"She's our commander." Bob replied. "Whatever she wants of us, it is our duty to follow her."

Being the commander of the Zemalyan's forces on the night shift was a relatively dull and uninteresting job. The city was so remote the chances of a third attack were very, very unlikely. And it was even less likely to come in the dead of night. However, there were certain advantages to the job.

Colonel Rachel Cade was currently taking advantage of one of them. Right now, there were very few people on duty, which allowed her to engage in a few private, personal operations. It was far easier to redirect a handful of units when there were fewer people around to see her do it.

She strode into the main war room, ignoring for the moment the majority of the display screens. Instead, she walked over to a single console. Leaning over the technician's shoulder, she observed the screen. At the moment, it was showing satellite topography of a part of the Dark Continent. For the most part it appeared to be little more then the normal, barren rocky wastes that made up most of the continent's landmass. Nothing.

"Anything from the field?" She asked the technician.

"Nothing." He replied. "The Dark Wings had a possible, but when they investigated it turned out to be a small group of bandits on the run. No connection to the targets."

"I see." She replied. "AJ2P looks to be empty. Order everyone to move on to F4D-1 and sweep that."

"Yes, colonel." The tech replied. She turned away from the console to look up at one of the main displays of the Dark Continent, mentally dividing it up into sectors she knew had been covered, and ones still to go. There was an awful lot left, she realised. Surely there was some realistic way to reduce the amount of are still to go.

Damn it. O'Bannon's tip-off about De Lyon had smacked of self-promotion, with Rose trying to compromise a superior to advance herself. But a little research had proved that there was something going on here. De Lyon had orders to take out the Special Operations unit, but the orders hadn't come form her. She'd traced them back to Colonel Franchetti, a long-time rival of hers. (He'd been some other things, but she didn't like to think about that now.) Clearly he wasn't going to give up more info on what was likely a most-secret operation, if he had ordered it himself rather then De Lyon striking out on his own.

So instead she now had a few pilots, some of them men and women she had personally trained, sweeping the Dark Continent for his forces. Officially they were on long-range reconnaissance flights. It wasn't too far off the truth.

So what was going on?

"Colonel Cade." The voice came form behind her. Turning around, she could see General Abbot, the supreme commander of the Zemalyan forces. "Is there something wrong?"

"No sir." She replied. "I didn't expect to see you here this late."

"I don't sleep much." He replied. "In a strange way, this place seems more like home to me then my own house."

Rachel nodded. Abbot's enlistment in the service dated from immediately after Chrom's coup. As a result, by the time the genetic enhancement programs were developed, he was far to old to be modified. To her, he seemed to be incredibly old, but that was probably because she, and most of her contemporaries, aged slower as a result of the program. Some scientists estimated that the newest generation of upgrades could live for a hundred and fifty years, if not more.

He walked over to his own, private office, Cade following him. He sat, and offered her a seat. "Something up, sir?" She asked.

"Colonel." He began. "In your command, could you name me the say, two or three individuals who pose the biggest potential security risk?"

She didn't want to mention De Lyon. For the moment, that would remain under wraps. "Probably Captain O'Bannon and Captain Maygari, sir." She replied.

"Any reason why them?"

"Both of them have spent a lot of time outside of the city, interacting with others from across the world." She replied. "I feel that both of them may have discovered some of the contrasts between our own existence and those of the outsiders." He nodded. "O'Bannon is ambitious and has a somewhat ruthless streak. She wouldn't care who got hurt if she achieved her aims."

"And Magayri?"

"She's intelligent and curious." Rachel continued. "I doubt that her long-term association with those mercenaries hasn't raised some very big questions about what's going on. And she has had a chance to view Quentin's journal. I can't say if she has, but it wouldn't surprise me."

Abbot nodded. "And who would you say would be your top choices for promotion." He asked. "Specifically, heading towards the inner circles that run this city."

Rachel paused. "Probably O'Bannon and Magyari again." She explained. "Both of them are rather… different to the behavioural norms we expect. Creative. Individual." She waved her hand around, trying to express her thoughts. "And both of them have more contact with the outside world then anyone else. They know more about how the rest of the world thinks."

"That's experience that I know we will need, eventually." Abbot replied. "Its curious, isn't it?"

"Yes sir." She said. "An interesting contradiction."

Now that the party was in full swing, Sandra had to admit that it wasn't that bad. People were being nice to her, which was something that did not happen often. The plentiful snacks and promise of cake later were both bonuses. Cake made everything better.

Besides Rick and Vic, Anna had dragged Stuart and Felix along with her, (The latter had been working with her and Stuart for several weeks now. Sandra still couldn't figure why.) While someone had persuaded Reven and Z-One to attend. Sandra had quietly suspected that Reven's presence here was only due to the threat of violence or the promise of free food, but she hadn't said anything.

At least Z-One was having a good time. She could see him sneaking off with handfuls of snacks, presumably devouring them when he thought nobody was looking. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't ever recall seeing the man's face. He was still wearing his helmet and bandanna in here.

"Attention everybody." Rick began, standing on the back of a milk crate that had served as furniture for many a year. "First up, I want to say thanks for everyone who helped organise this, and everyone who came. You guys rock!" There was a cheer from everyone in the room, followed by light applause.

"But who I really, really want to say thanks to is the woman who we're all here for." He continued. "About a year ago now, I wandered into the Wastelands with a shiny new Command Wolf and a head full of silly ideas. Sandra took me under her wing after a fashion and probably is the main reason I'm still alive today." He paused for a second. "We all owe her a lot for what she did last month against the army, so, on behalf of all of you here and everyone else who isn't, I'd like to give a big thankyou to her!"

The room erupted into cheers and applause. Sandra almost blushed. She hadn't ever expected to hear anything like this. "Thanks." She spoke up. "Thanks everyone. I, uh, I didn't ever expect anything like this."

"So, if we could all adjourn to the back garden for the moment, I think it's time for us to present Sandra with her present!" There was another cheer from the crowd, save for Reven who looked very sulky. Clearly somebody hadn't been happy with whatever it was they were planning. Sandra wasn't sure if she should be worried, or be amused.

Rick hopped down and offered Sandra his hand. "Come on." He said, and smiled. "Its good."

"Now I'm really, really worried." She replied. "What are you up to, you big tool?"

"Nothing." He replied. "Besides. You've earned this."

Sandra decided to say nothing at this point. If it were Vic saying that, then she'd be very, very scared. Instead she nodded. "So let's see it already."

Rick lead her out the back, covering her good eye with his hand just before they emerged. "It's a surprise." He said. "We couldn't wrap it, so we had to improvise."

"Can I look yet?" Sandra asked. She knew they were outside now.

"Okay." Rick took is hand away. Sandra blinked for a moment, then looked straight ahead of her.

Spud was standing there, looking perfectly normal. At least, at first. As she looked up, she could see that there was something different about him. Then she saw it. There was a pair of large cannons mounted on top of the body, connected to a power unit ion the Liger's rump.

"Its…" She began. "A CP-01 beam cannon set?" Rick nodded. "Wow…" She'd been after one for Spud for ages. She'd just never been able to find one, or afford it on the few times she had. Everyone must have chipped in to get it for her.

"Thanks Rick." She said. "No, thanks everyone." And then she smiled, something she rarely did. "As strange as it seems, this really means a lot to me."

"This is touching." Vic replied. "In a very disturbing kind of a way."

Anna nodded. "It was Rick's idea." She began. "But we all wanted to do something for you after you did so much for everyone else." She almost glared at Reven.

"Besides, Spud looks happy." Rick said. "And now, if you come back inside, we have something else for you."

"For some reason," She began. "I feel that I should be very, very afraid."

Pinnacle Base

The Wastelands

2015 Hours

Xonvier Ebonflack strode through the corridors or his new command center, followed as always by a pair of heavily armed and armored guards. Pinnacle base was far from new, instead it dated from the warring period following the planet's colonization. Heavily damaged, abandoned and forgotten, it had made a perfect place for him to establish the new secret headquarters of the secret ideological organization A-X.

The organization's situation had been improving considerably in the last few weeks, especially considering its recent setbacks. Shepard's hijacking of a transport ship had gone off far batter then expected. Their depleted ranks had been refreshed with a new supply of Gravity Zoids, which far outstripped the Attack Zoids they had previously been reliant on. Additionally, the ship had been carrying a load of the new Cannon Caesar, an updated model of the Godkaiser that he used. These new Zoids had been formed into an elite unit that would form the spearhead of his new army.

The Whale King had been repaired and refitted, and added to their growing fleet. Now stronger then they ever were before, the A-X fleet had, for the first time ever, been gathered entirely in one place. While small by the standards of the UZN or the Empire, they were still a considerable force to be reckoned with.

And now he had the chance to prove the power of A-X. An opportunity had arisen that he would be a fool to ignore.

He strode onto a balcony overlooking a parade ground. Below him, scores of A-X soldiers stood at attention, their shiny black armour concealing their individual identities. As one, they all raised an arm in salute.

"HAIL EBONFLAK!"

He waited for a moment, before beginning. "This world is corrupt!" It was his rallying cry, the fundamental statement of his beliefs that drove the whole organisation, and had done so since Desmond's untimely demise. "The Ignorant Masses and their foolish leaders have been allowed to squander this planet and its resources for far, far to long! The rule of nations has lead to nothing but wars and poverty and destruction, creating a world where the future is not only dim but very, very dark indeed."

"It is up to us, the glorious soldiers of the secret ideological organization of A-X to rite those wrongs and to overthrow the corrupt and oppressive rule of nations that would destroy our world with their own greed and shortsighted foolishness. We, who have seen the light of the truth must take control of the world and save it from the ignorant masses!"

"Once A-X rules supreme over all mankind we will create a newer and better world where these inequalities and tragic failings of the current rule will no longer exist. We will stamp out all these things and create a new order based on logic and reason, with those enlightened people leading it."

There was a tap on his shoulder. Glancing back, he could see John Shepard, his second in command sanding behind him. "What is it?" He quietly asked.

"My Lord Ebonflak, it's time." He replied.

"Very well then." He turned away from the crowd. "I have been expecting this moment for some time."

He and John returned to his new throne room. A virtual duplicate of the one he had abandoned at Lazwegaz, it was the heart of his new base. From here he could run the entire organisation. Today, however, it looked a little different. A pair of rather overstuffed couches had been added, one on each side of the throne. Radnor and D'Aleverra stood on one side, waiting for him, while Watanabe waited on the other. Ascending to his throne, he nodded to the others. They sat, John joining Watanbe on his right.

"This will be a great day for our noble cause." He began. "For this will be the day that the ignorant masses will see our true strength." He pressed a button on the side of his throne. A large display screen dropped down from the ceiling and switched on. "Now, as we watch, the world learns."

The Shelfands Broadcasting Service logo flashed up on the screen and then faded off, followed by a warning. Violence, Course Language, Adult Themes, Gratuitous shots of Underdressed Women, the full plethora of bad things one could expect out of a production like this. But then, this was the truth. This was reality.

After a brief company intro, the scene suddenly shifted to a grainy, black-and-white picture of a one-eyed woman, sitting in what looked like a run down bar. "Why do I do it?" She began. "Probably because I don't have any other useful skills. Fighting is all I'm good at." It suddenly cut to a Shield Liger in action, chasing down a Helcat before pouncing on it.

Just as abruptly, it shifted to a man with scruffy, shoulder-length hair in the same bar. "Because I'm hoping that I'll find inspiration." He explained. "Out here, it's raw and primal. Survival of the fittest. Eat or be eaten. It's a very stark and harsh existence. I'm, sure it's something that would make a great-selling book." The scene shifted to a Command Wolf AC that was running between rocky outcroppings while firing its main cannon. A few shots went past the Wolf in reply.

The scene jumped back, this time to a young woman with short hair, sitting in the bar. She was glaring at the camera, the shadows falling across her face giving her a somewhat eerie look. "Because…" She began. "Because the insane monkey may yet prevail." The scene changed to a Gunsniper firing its tail cannon from cover.

"Good Tomy, its her!" John shouted as he stood. Everybody shied away from him. Nobody would be impudent enough to disrupt Ebonflak's TV time and live to tell about it.

"What are you talking about?" Ebonflak replied, trying to keep one eye on the screen. He was hoping they didn't play his big interview while John was talking.

"That woman…" John began. "She was the one that Ebonflak selected for his operation on the Dark Continent." He explained. "As far as I can tell, she would have been one of the last to see him before he…" he trailed off. "Went missing in action."

"I see." Ebonflak replied, considering the implications.

"There's more, sir." John continued. "Amongst the Dark Zoids defending the city were a Shield Liger and a Command Wolf AC, the same Zoids used by this woman's associates." He explained, glancing at the screen. "Furthermore, it was a Shield Liger, a Command Wolf AC and a Gunsniper that attacked our Lazwegaz base alongside a group of Dark Zoids."

"So you're saying these people have some connection to the Dark Continent and to our former leader?" Ebonflak asked.

"It would appear so." He replied, turning back to the screen. The blonde woman was back on the screen, a small caption giving her name as Vic Hagen. "No doubt. That's definitely her."

"That's is excellent news!" Ebonflak shouted as he stood. "For this morning, I received a message from the Dark Continent." Everyone in the room turned to him, the screen forgotten. This was an exciting development. "It appears that the Black Star military are seeking like-minded allies in the Shelflands, ones who have a desire to see the reckless rule of nations replaced with a better, more ordered regime!"

John wanted to say something here, but at the same time he knew that speaking up may be hazardous to his health. Something about this while situation seemed wrong to him. Why would they suddenly want to form an alliance, he wondered, especially after twice thwarting our plans. It sounds like a trap. But then, I've seen them fight. If they do want to be our allies, then they would greatly increase our forces.

"These people." Ebonflak began, gesturing at the screen. "They must know more about the Black Star forces. It is time that we… invite them to join us." He began. "For with the information they can provide, we may yet be able to gain an advantage over our would-be allies." He turned back to John. "Where would we find them?"

"Most likely Bed Springs." He replied. "My information suggests that it is their main residence. Additionally, as it is the current centre of the mercenary trade, the odds are that they, as mercenaries, will be there."

"Excellent." He said. "John, prepare a capture operation immediately. He rest of you are to have the entire fleet ready to depart immediately." He looked up to the ceiling, and spread his arms. "For today is a great day. It is the day that we, the enlightened soldiers of A-X will begin the final path to fulfil our objectives of world enlightenment."

Rose lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling. An hour ago, Magyari had returned to her quarters. Then the rest of her squad hat turned up. Not her entire command, she noted. Only those individuals that had been with her on her trips to the outside world, and interacted with the mercenaries she had bout back here.

"So she did it." Rose said to herself. "She couldn't keep quiet about it forever." She'd figured as much. Sel would have felt guilty about shielding her men form the truth of their lives now that she knew it. She could only wonder if her former friend would have dropped her in it. Could be fun to find out. Kahm and Senior looked like they had some… useful qualities to them. And they weren't bad looking either.

Still, she had her ace in the hole. She still knew more then Sel did, and there was plenty more to come. Rolling over and throwing the sheets aside, she opened the bedside cabinet. There. She pulled out the small computer and moved back onto the middle of the bed.

Here I am, naked in my bed with a man, she thought, and he can't appreciate it. It was kind of funny, actually. She flicked on the switch and passed the vocal check. After a few seconds, the screen came on, the glowing green text of the glyphs providing the room's only illumination.

"Its me." She began. "How are you doing tonight, Steelgrave?"

"Oh, it's you." He began. "You are a most supremely irritating organic puddle."

That caused a giggle. Talking to Slaughter was always a fun game of verbal jousting, each one of them trading insults. "Yes, it's me. Your favourite obnoxious carbon-cycle creature. I was thinking we could have a little talk, you know, just the two of us. You know a lot about me, but I don't know much about you."

"Why should I explain myself to you?" He asked.

"Because I could delete you if you don't cooperate?" She replied.

"You wouldn't dare." He hissed. "You need me."

"But how do you know that you're really you?" She replied, a coy look on her face. "For all you know, you could be a copy. I could just delete you and replace you with another copy of yourself." She said. "On the other hand, you could be an original. I could delete the sum total of, what, centuries of your existence just like that. One click."

There was a pause. "Fine then." He said. "What do you wish to know."

"Okay, your name is Slaughter Steelgrave. You are, or were, a gold-skinned robot built in human form. You pilot a big red battlesuit. But tell us more about yourself as a person, SS. I'm dying to know."

"I so loathe and despise you, human." He replied. "But very well. Perhaps it will teach you some deal of respect for me."

"Maybe, maybe not." She said. "So go on."

"My designation is Slaughter Steelgrave." The voice began. "I am the leader of the Destructors, a faction of the Starrior race. I was the mightiest amongst them while my battlesuit, a Wastor-Class Warrior unit, is one of the most powerful designed."

"Go on." Her eyes narrowed. Slaughter was proving to be far more interesting then she'd ever hoped.

"My people, the Wastors, were a militant faction who believed in expansion through conquest." He continued. "We viewed all others as our enemies, not just the Z-Knights but also the Protector Starriors."

She raised an eyebrow. Now this was interesting.

Much to Sandra's surprise, the documentary had been far better then she'd expected. For the most part it avoided cheap sensationalism for a more deeper, more intelligent look at the people it was portraying. She felt that she had come over as a reasonably intelligent person, just one who lived a rather unusual life. Rick had seemed to be more of a lovable clown then anything else, and Vic was… well… she was enough to ensure that it had an adult timeslot.

There had been a lot of other surprises. Sandra had been worried that Garry had somehow bypassed Sel's request and filmed her men. While there was footage of them, most of it was incidental stuff, and was to her critical eye nothing that could be used to identify them. There was more footage of Bekka then anyone else, and most of it seemed to be focused on the gap between her shirt and her pants.

And Z-One's interview had been priceless.

After the documentary - and the cake - she'd managed to shoo everyone else out and get a passable night's sleep. Of course, come the morning she was hung-over and bleary eyed. She was in far from her best form, which meant that she was taken by surprise when the gas grenade came in through the kitchen window.

Clasping a filthy towel over her face, she staggered out of the kitchen. Behind her, she could hear the sound of breaking glass. A hand reached out of the kitchen to grab her. Reacting quickly, Sandra grabbed the arm and wrenched it around, bashing it against the doorframe. There was a shout of pain, giving her enough time to stagger away.

"Rick!" She shouted. "Vic! Someone! We're being attacked!"

A loud crashing noise told her that they were coming in through the front door as well. Soldiers appeared in the living room, clad in black plate armour with a one-way facemask, and carrying a bulky short-barrelled rifle. A-X, she thought. Tool. Not wasting any time, the soldier charged at her. Ducking to one side, she grabbed his arm and twisted it around, slamming him face first into the wall. The armour absorbed most of the impact, so she slammed him n again just to be sure.

The soldier staggered, giving Sandra a chance. The soldier was carrying a retractable baton on his belt, similar to one she had used back when she was a police officer. Grabbing it from his belt while he was momentarily stunned, she bought it down hard on his weapon arm. He yelped in pain, but didn't drop the rifle. A second hit fixed that problem. Swinging it around, she hit him in the already damaged faceplate, sending him stumbling back, crashing down on the coffee table.

The sounds of breaking glass and shouting came from upstairs. Damn, they're everywhere, she thought. Heavy footsteps only confirmed to her that it was more of them. Tool. She looked at the fallen soldier's rifle. Hmm… No. An X-S Autorifle was so hopelessly inaccurate and uncontrollable that she'd probably fill the house and any hostages with lead before she took out any of the enemy.

Taking the baton, she ducked into the hallway. There was a shout from the top of the stairs. Looking up, she could see it was another A-X soldier, his rifle pointed in her direction. She ducked back into the living room just as a spray of bullets tore up the wall and hallway. Tool.

More shouting from the hallway, this time an order to cease fire. A hand crept around the wall and tried to grab her. Sandra recoiled form it, then hit the arm with the baton. She was not going down easy. Maybe, she thought. Just maybe I can get away.

"Put the weapon down!" A voice from behind her shouted. "Now!"

Or not.

She slowly turned around. Standing in the room was a trio of A-X soldiers lead by an unarmoured officer. He had sharp, angular features, dark eyes and short black hair. He wore a black uniform with a red trim, complete with an officer's hat. He looked like some sort of special forces commander, she thought. Well, an evil one. He had a pistol levelled at her.

"I have objective two." A voice came over his communicator.

"Objective one is-" Another voice shouted. "She bit me!"

The man glared at her. "Now." He said, sternly.

Sandra slowly kneeled and dropped the baton, then stood. "There." She said. "Now what do you want with us?"

The man sneered. "You have caused us no end of problems." He began. "You and your friends from the Dark Continent."

Sandra was momentarily taken back. "But how did-"

"I was a member of Colonel Pie's battalion." He explained. "As was she." He indicated to the door. Sandra turned to see a solder standing there, one arm around Vic's neck. "In fact, it was I who selected her for our attack on the Dark Continent."

"I have special qualities." Vic said, cheerfully. And then she bit the soldier on the arm again, just to be sure.

"You're coming with us." The officer continued. "If you're smart, you'll cooperate."

Despite the after-effects of last night's party, Stuart was up surprisingly early. Anna had put it down to rampant stupidity triumphing over common sense and physical pain, something she had come to expect from him. She and Felix were feeling far more restrained, the pair of them quietly nursing coffees in the kitchen of their recently-acquired house.

Of course, neither of them were happy when he suddenly burst in to the room, shouting. "Guys!" He yelled. "There's something happing over at Sandra's house!"

"Stuart" Anna began. "It's too early in the morning for you to be shouting." She slowly turned towards him. "Now tell me what's going on and if this is just one of your stupid moments I'm going to probably kill you."

"There's bad guys in black crawling all over it and gunfire and stuff!" He shouted, seemingly ignoring what Anna had said. "It's like… totally wild baby! Yeah!"

Felix and Anna looked at each other for a moment. "What's the hell is going on?" Felix snarled.

"I don't know." Anna replied. "But I intend to find out."

Leaving her coffee behind, she stormed out the front door, collecting a shotgun as she went. Her plan for the day had involved quietly recovering from the previous night. This was the last thing she wanted. As she stepped outside there was a loud roar of engines. Looking up, she could see a quartet of Glaive Quamas pass overhead carrying a Zoid underneath them. A Liger.

Spud!

Looking across the road, she could see Reven who was standing, bleary-eyed and pistol in hand. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Someone's trying to abduct Sandra and the others." Anna shouted back. "And they may be after us next."

"Wha?" Raven replied. Clearly she wasn't too awake either. Z-One stepped out of a doorway next to her, looking none the worse for wear. But then, it was hard to tell with him.

"Z-One!" Anna shouted. "Get after those Quamas!" The roar of jet engines emphasised her statement as a another pair passed over, this time carrying the Gunsniper.

"Yes ma'am!" He shouted, ducking back into the house.

Reven turned to glare at Anna. "Who the hell do you think you are, giving my minion orders?"

Anna walked over to Reven. While she was only a bit taller then the dark-haired pilot, she was also a lot broader and more muscular. "In case you hadn't noticed, the town is under attack and some of our friends are being attacked or kidnapped or something." She snarled. "I'm trying to prevent that from happening." She loomed over the rather frightened-looking Reven.

"That's fine. That's good. I was just wondering." She replied, meekly.

"Good." Anna replied. "Now get your Zoid. This may get messy."

Darth Pants sat in the cockpit of his Zoid, watching the situation unfold in town. From what he could make out, something was happening at Rick's house. There had been solders in there, as well as Attack Zoids nearby. Now there was a Redhorn, a Dibison and a Black Rhimos moving around the town near the house.

This could not be allowed. Nothing would get in the way of his revenge. The time had come for action.

He opened up the Zoid's throttle, charging straight into the town. As the Zoid went, he activated its various systems, including the devastating new weapons that he'd installed. Yes, he thought. He'd originally planned to use these against Rick. Now, however, the poor fools in his way would be the first to taste their sheer power.

The Zoid thundered through the town, heading straight for the offending Zoids. Obstacles were irrelevant. Anything he couldn't simply crush or stomp he charged straight through. Nothing would stop him now. The Dibison loomed up at the centre of his vision. Fine. That poor fool would be the first to taste his mighty power.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, the exhilaration of battle filling him, overwhelming all else. This was his moment. Nothing could stop him."

"Stuart." Anna began, blinking at the sheer stupidity of what she was watching.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"There's a Geruder trying to drill your Zoid's leg off."

There was no other way to put it. A Geruder, who's main cannons had been replaced with drills had charged out of nowhere and rammed straight into the side of the Dibison, to apparently no effect. The pilot was clearly not going to be discouraged, as the small Zoid was pressing itself into the Dibison, clearly trying desperately to take it out.

"Say wha?" Stuart shouted as the Dibison's head swung around. One of the horns caught the Geruder in the side, lifting it into the air and sending it flying. The small Zoid crashed to the ground, belly-up, collapsing an abandoned house underneath it.

"Never mind."

Pants sat upside down in the cockpit, momentarily stunned. The Mad Geruder, his latest ultimate creation, had been effortlessly defeated. How was this possible, he asked himself. Whoever was in that Dibison must be some sort of tactical genius to take him out like that. Still, he thought, he still had his spare ultimate creation. His revenge would merely be delayed. That's all.

He opened the canopy of the wrecked Zoid and very carefully released his safety harness. The result of this was that he simply fell out of the command couch, landing head-first on the cockpit roof. Picking himself up, he looked over at the Redhorn and Dibison.

Something was afoot here, he thought. He intended to find out what.

After a few minutes, Felix emerged form the house and shook his head. "Well?" Anna asked, looking down form the open cockpit of her Redhorn.

"They're gone." Felix replied. "I'd say a large group of soldiers stormed the house and seized them. There's clearly been a fight, and there has been some shooting."

"Are they…" Anna began. "Are they all alive"

Felix nodded. "I'd say so. I think these guys were looking to capture, rather then kill."

"So where are they?" Anna asked.

"I think I can answer that." Z-One's voice came over the communicator. "I tracked the last Glaive Quama to leave. It boarded a Whale King to the north-east of town."

"And where is it now?"

"They've just launched." He replied. "Heading north-west. If you want, I can tail them."

"Do it." Anna replied.

"Now hold on here!" Reven butted in on their conversation. "Z-One, don't listen to her!"

"Reven, this is important!" Anna shouted. "They've taken Sandra, Rick and Vic."

Reven looked like she was about to say something back but then realised what could happen to her if she did. "Right." She muttered. "I'm airborne now. What do you want be to do?"

"Stay on station over town." Anna replied. "Keep an eye out for any sign of a second attack or anything else unusual."

"Right" Reven replied, grudgingly. "Hey, there's a Hovercargo parked outside the town. Some moron's done a piss-poor job of hiding it."

Anna was about to reply when she heard someone shouting from below the Zoid. Peering out of the cockpit, she could see a thin, pale man wearing a black cloak. A Darth, she thought? What's he doing here. "What is it?" She shouted.

"I'm here to see Rick R. Mortis!" The man yelled. "Now get out of my way or taste my wrath!"

Rick? She thought. Darth? She vaguely remembered something from the documentary about Rick and a Darth… that was it. "You're not Darth Pants, are you?"

The Darth paused for a second. "Yes…" he slowly replied. "Yes, I am. Rick is my arch enemy I have vengeance issues with him. Now get out of the way. I have no desire to harm you because of him."

"He's already gone." Felix shouted back. "He's been kidnapped."

"What?" Pants seemed to be momentarily taken back. "Who dares interfere with my mission of righteous vengeance? Who is it? Where have they taken him?"

"We don't know." Anna shouted. "They're escaping in a Whale King now. Someone is following them, but the rest of us have no means to keep up with them."

Pants looked around at the various Zoids. "Is this all you have?" He asked.

"There's a Storm Sworder and a Sinker currently busy, but that's it." Anna replied.

"Very well." Pants said. "I have a Hover Cargo that I have concealed outside of town. We can use that to follow them with."

For a moment, Anna glared at Reven on the screen, who tried not to say anything in response. "Fine she said. "Take us to your Hovercargo."

"I will." Pants replied. "And then, once we have caught up to the Whale King, forced it down, defeated the crew and recovered their prisoners…" he paused. "Then I will have my vengeance."

De Lyon watched as the sprayer tanks were lowered into place on the Zoid's back. The technicians carefully manoeuvred it to connect to the grade-up weapons port, then secured it into place. A series of checks began to ensure that the system was functioning properly and had connected to the Zoid's main power system.

"Excuse me, sir." He turned around to see Sturm standing next to him. "I have a report from Agent Collins."

"Well?" he asked.

"Ebonflak has accepted your offer and is heading this way with the entire A-X fleet." He replied. "Exactly as you predicted it would, sir."

"I thought so." He replied. "Good. We can proceed to the next phase of the operation."

"There is one other thing." Sturm continued. "Before departing, Ebonflak ordered one of his ships to Bed Springs. Apparently they've captured Blackmore, Mortis and Hagen, and are bringing them here with them."

De Lyon smiled. "This is a most interesting development, Captain." He replied. "Very interesting indeed."


	48. A Bullet to the Head

Whale King Havoc

Above the Dark Continent

1400 Hours

For the millionth time since she'd been thrown in there, Sandra looked around the cell. Nothing seemed to have changed in the last five minutes, she glumly told herself. Four bare walls with only a small door with a presently closed window slit. The only furnishings were a pair of benches that could also double, albeit badly, as beds and a very small convenience. Great. The door, she'd figured, was locked by a magnetic lock controlled by a keypad, which ruined any chance she had of opening it.

She'd figure that if she was left alone in a place like this, she would cope. She'd spent a lot of the last few years alone. She'd figured ways to manage without company. No, what was worse was that they'd put Rick and Vic in with her.

At the moment the pair of them were bantering on about last night's documentary and how they'd looked. This was giving Sandra a little more time to herself and allowing her to think.

They had been kidnapped by A-X, that much she knew. They were on a Whale King. Where it was heading was another matter. She had a very, very bad idea what it may be, however.

The officer that had captured her said he was a member of Pie's battalion. Emphasis on the 'was', she presumed, as the entire battalion were apparently now listed as 'missing in action'. Clearly this man was now some sort of A-X commander. He said he'd selected Vic for their mission to the Dark Continent. But why?

She turned to Vic. "That A-X commander said he selected you for their Dark Continent operation." She began. "And that you were a member of Pie's battalion. Did you know him?"

Vic leaned back on the bunk, her head drooping off then end. "Him?" She asked. "I knew him, but that was before I died."

Sandra paused a moment. Never one to be helpful, was she? "Right." She felt that asking about what Vic meant by 'before she died' was probably not a good idea. "So who is he?"

She paused in thought. "Major John Shepard." She replied. "Zoid pilot. Commander boss guy. Always dresses in black. Evil, pretentious maybe."

"The Black Major?" Rick asked, looking up form his sketchpad that he'd somehow managed to smuggle in. "Sounds like a cool name for a villain." He scribbled a bit. "He's got the face for it too."

"He had an Evil Peg." Vic continued. "Evil, baby-eating bastard horsie."

Sandra remembered seeing an Evil Pegasus in the forces attacking Novo Zemalya. That was likely him. "So this tool said he chose you for the mission to the Dark Continent?" She asked. "Did he say why?"

"He wasn't there." Vic replied. "It was eyebrow-man instead." She indicated to one of her eyebrows. "Eyebrow." She then sniggered.

Eyebrow Man? She thought. What the ferrelling hell is she talking about. No, probably best not to ask. "And did you know why he picked you?"

"Because I used to be in Pie's thing?" She replied. "Because he liked my friendly disposition and sunny personality." She smiled in that disturbing way she often did.

Great, she thought. Vic was no help at all.

"So why do you think they've got us?" Rick asked, not looking up from his pad.

"Well, we have managed to cheese of A-X in past." Sandra replied. "We did attack their central base and all that."

"Good point." Rick replied and went back to scribbling.

Sandra stood up and walked around the cell a bit. There wasn't much of anywhere to go, she realised. Great. And even if I could get out, where would I go? We're on a tooly Whale King flying above… well, I can take a good guess where. Its not like we can jump overboard.

I have a pretty good idea of where we're going, she thought. The question is, why?

Hammer Kaiser Scarab

For the most part, A-X's fleet of transport ships were configured purely as military transports. There were very little allowances for personal comforts or luxuries onboard. There was, however, one exception.

The Scarab, the fleet's only Hammer Kaiser, was equipped with a command centre for the use of the supreme commander. Originally Desmond had kept it rather simple, but Ebonflak had requested a number of changes made. As a result, the command centre now resembled nothing so much as a smaller version of his own throne room. From here, Eboflak could run any operation in the comfort that he was accustomed to.

A beep alerted him to an incoming message, the window popping up on the side of a monitor to his right. "My lord Ebonflak." John Shepard began "I am breaking radio silence at the pre-designated point to report our acquisition of the objectives as well as our meeting the fleet."

"Excellent." He replied. He'd sent John out to acquire the three mercenaries in the hope that they could provide more information on this mysterious city. The information in the journal that

Desmond had used was thorough, but by John's report it was also somewhat outdated. His hope was that these three could provide additional information and, if possible, leverage for bargaining.

Another window opened up showing the position of the fleet. John's Whale King, the Havoc joined the other three Whale kings, the Carnage, Pariah and Rouge at the lead of the fleet. In the middle was the Scarab, with the Whale Sharks Warlord and Badlander at the rear of the fleet. The full might of A-X was now arrayed and ready for battle, he thought. Truly, it was a glorious sight.

"Keep them secure for the moment, Major Shepherd." He replied. "When the time comes, I will question them myself."

"Are you sure that's wise sir?" He asked.

"Certainly." Ebonflak replied. "It is time that those three ignorant fools realised the truth of what they were up against."

No sooner had the communication ended, then John turned to Taro. "This will not work." He snarled. "I'll need to speak to them myself."

"Yes, Major." Taro replied. "Do you want me to get the jumper leads?"

"No." He replied. "Hangen used to be one of my men. I'm sure that she'll respond favourably to me." He looked around. "Besides, I don't want Ebonflak to know that we've gone behind his back."

"Yes sir."

John turned back to the front of the bridge. "Captain Tweedle", he shouted."

The captain, a middle-aged, nervous man with a rather unconvincing toupee jumped in place. "Y-yes, major?" He began, deferring to Shepard even though he technically outranked him, and certainly was the superior officer in this situation.

"Maintain current course and heading." He replied. "Inform me if anything, and I mean anything happens."

"Yes major!" He replied. "I'll do that. I'll get on it right away. That is, if anything happens I will." He turned his back, muttering as he went.

John turned back to Taro. "Watanabe, I want you to check all our sensor logs and other data. Check if anything's following us. I'm still not convinced that we got away form Bed Springs clean."

"Hai, Kuroso-sha" Taro replied, and bowed.

Shepard eyed him, and then walked of the bridge. Taking a pair of soldiers with him, he travelled down to the ship's detention block. He'd been impressed by these people, he thought as they went. They'd managed to blunt his offensive into the city. They'd attacked Lazwegaz and inflicted heavy damage on their own forces. And they had even given him a decent run in combat. He needed to know more.

He stopped at the cell and slid open the eyeslot. All three of them were there, Mortis siting on the floor looking down at something, Blackmore on a bunk glaring at the door, and Hagen seemingly staring off into space. What were they up to, he thought. Without a word, Hagen leaped off her bed and seemed to appear instantly in front of the door, her strange yellow-green eyes staring through the slot.

"Hello." She began.

He was momentarily taken back. "Private Victoria Hagen, Vinterlands Armed Forces." He began. "I am Major John Shepard. You do remember me?"

"Yes." She replied. "You eat babies." Behind her, somebody sniggered.

"I need to know more about the city that you travelled with Desmond to." He continued. "Tell me, Hagen."

"Eyebrow man." He began. "Yes, that time. That was fun." He could sense a certain… cheerfulness creeping into her voice. "We went on a dungeon crawl and we talked to sewer rats and I rode around in a Deathsaurer and burninated the countryside." She said, almost sounding like a kid talking about what they did on their holidays. "It was so much fuuun!"

So she was in the Deathsaurer, he thought. That must have been Desmonds' plan. Judging from the way it had laid into his own troops, however, what happened mustn't have been a part of the original plan. "What happened to Desmond?"

"Eyebrow." She replied, the voice dropping to a whisper. "He got Bigasaur on his face."

John had to pause for a moment. What did she mean by that. "And the others?" he asked. "What about Hallis?"

"He was whacked." She continued in the low whisper. "Like a goomba. Goomba, goomba"

Dead, he thought. "And Snow?"

"She was fun!" Hagen replied, suddenly going back to her usual cheerfulness. "She was silly and got all hysterical and squealed a lot and tried filling the ceiling with lead because she didn't like the way I arranged her socks. We had fun!"

That didn't sound like Snow at all. But, at the same time, as far as he knew that Hagen was the last person to see them alive, so he had to believe what she was saying. Now to see if she knew anything else. "Do you know a man called Jean De Lyon?" He asked.

There was a pause. "No, but hum a few bars and I'll fake it." She replied cheerily.

"I know him." Blackmore spoke up from deeper into the cell. Hagen stood aside to let her glare out. With a single, deep blue eye, her glare was almost as intense as Hagen's. "The question is, what's he to you?"

He paused. Time to put all his cards on the table. These people would probably find out eventually. "De Lyon contacted us to propose an alliance between his people and A-X." John explained.

"Give us a minute." Blackmore replied. She turned away, then walked over to where Rick was sitting. The pair of them talked in hurried whispers for a moment before Blackmore returned.

"Well?" He asked.

"Did he propose the alliance himself?" She asked. 'Or did he go through a third party?"

They seemed to know more then he did, so he felt that a full answer was the best choice. "There was communication between one of his agents and our leader." He replied.

"This… agent." She began. "Was it a woman?"

An unusual question. "No." he replied.

"Major." She began. "And I'm saying this for our sake as we're suck on board your frelling flying death trap here and are likely to still be here should any badness begin, there's a good chance that this may be a trap and that we are all going to die."

"Are we there yet?"

Pants gripped the controls for the Hovercargo even tighter, trying not to scream out in terror. "No." he replied for the zillionth time, hoping that Stuart would get the picture sooner or later.

"Oh." He paused. "Are we there yet?"

"No!" He snapped. "I'm driving! Stop bothering me!"

"Okay." Stuart replied. "No need to get angry."

He breathed deeply. Okay, this is all good. I can handle this. "Just… just go and do something else somewhere else." He replied. "I'm very busy right now."

"Okay!" Stuart shouted and walked off. Pants started counting to himself. He reached twenty-nine before anything happened. "Hey! What does this thing do?"

Normally a Hovercargo is a rather spacious vehicle, well-equipped with amenities for the crew and passengers. Pants, however, had equipped his Hovercargo with a number of extra workshops, labs and storage spaces. The end result was that there wasn't much space for all the newfound passengers. This meant that they were all cramped in the command deck for most of the time.

And Pants hated every minute of it.

Anna and Felix were okay, he'd decided. Anna tended to shout orders at him a lot, but he could live with that, as she also seemed to be the only person who could keep Stuart under some sort of control. Felix just seemed to sulk in the corners and not talk to anyone. He could deal with that.

No, the problems were Reven and Stuart. Reven had complained loudly about everything from the space available for her to sit down to the quality of the coffee in the small gallery to the colour of the interior walls. She'd apparently spent the last hour having a bath, determined to use up the entire hot water supply.

Stuart, on the other hand had a short attention span and was easily bored. He spent all his time wandering around and asking what everything did. And everyone else seemed to be ignoring him, leaving only pants to keep him under control. It was maddening. If he wasn't seeking vengeance, then he would have thrown the lot of them off ages ago.

"What's that over there?" He asked for the millionth time.

"It's a light switch!" Pants shouted. He was about ready to crack, he thought. Please oh please let something happen soon.

As if to answer his hopes, the main comms screen abruptly came on, showing the masked face of Z-One. "Hey." He began. "Got some news for you guys."

"What's up?" Anna asked, clamping one hand on Stuart's shoulder as he was inspecting one of pants' favourite bowling balls.

"The Whale King has joined up with a bunch of other ships." He began. "There's another three kings, a Hammer Kaiser and a pair of Whale Sharks." He glanced down again. "They're definitely friends as they're now moving in formation."

"Four Whale Kings, a Hammer Kaiser and two Whale Sharks?" Reven asked, clad in Pants' bathrobe and dripping all over the floor. "No way we can take them on." She said. "I say we turn around now and forget about this."

"No." Anna stated. "I want to know what they're up to." She turned back to the screen. "Keep following them. Tell us the instant they do something."

"You know, I can't keep this up forever." Z-One replied. "I gotta sleep sometime."

"Fine." Anna said. "Reven, you go and relive him."

"Me?" She replied. "Why?"

"Because you're the pilot of our only other flying Zoid." Anna explained. "I mean, if you don't want to go, we could let someone else fly your Zoid, like Stuart or Felix."

Reven paused for a moment. "Fine." She said. "I'm going." She angrily stalked out of the room. Pants couldn't help but feel relived. That was one less pain in the neck to deal with.

For the next hour, it was mostly quiet. Z-One returned and vanished, presumably trying to find somewhere to rest after being airborne for so long. Other then that, and the usual shouting at Stuart, it was mostly quiet.

It was Reven who interrupted the silence with her first report. "They're putting the ships down." She announced. "There's a small, rather secluded valley ahead with is just big enough to hold all of them."

This news came as something of a surprise to everyone. As far as they knew, there was nothing at all in the valley, or anything near it, that was of any value. Certainly nothing worth sending seven ships too. "They're not doing anything else are they?" Anna asked. "Not deploying troops or sending out flyers to secure the LZ or the like?"

"Nope." Reven replied. "Just… sitting there."

"I see." Anna said. "Hold your position and keep watching them. We're several hours behind as it is, so this may give us a chance to catch them." She looked at Felix, who shrugged. "And tell us the instant anything happens."

"Hail Ebonflak!"

Ebonflak looked down at Shepard and Watanabe as they stood in the command centre, saluting. Behind them were the three impudent outsiders that had been featured on the documentary, and had destroyed their base at Lazwegaz. Now, if what John was saying were true, it seemed that they had also defeated Desmond's forces in the Dark Continent.

He felt that, in a way, he owed them for that. Desmond's defeat had lead to his rise to the position of supreme power within A-X. However, the fact remained that they had been a problem for his organisation in past. Now they kept vital information that he needed to further his cause.

"My lord Ebonflak." John began. "As per your request, I have bought the three prisoners for you to question."

"Very good, Major." He replied. "It is strange, isn't it, that the very future of this organisation could rely on the information that these people could provide us with." He glared at them. "Bring them forward that I may question them myself."

"Yes, my lord." John agreed, indicating to the guards. The three prisoners were pushed forwards to the point where they were standing at the base of the throne. More shoving by the guards had them down on their knees, looking up at him.

"This world is corrupt!" He began. "The Ignorant Masses and their foolish leaders have been allowed to squander this planet and its resources for far, far to long! The rule of nations has lead to nothing but wars and poverty and destruction, creating a world where the future is not only dim but very, very dark indeed."

"It is up to us, the glorious soldiers of the secret ideological organization of A-X to rite those wrongs and to overthrow the corrupt and oppressive rule of nations that would destroy our world with their own greed and shortsighted foolishness. We, who have seen the light of the truth must take control of the world and save it from the ignorant masses!"

"Doesn't half go on, does he?" The brown-haired prisoner whispered to the blonde. She sniggered. The black-haired woman elbowed him in the side, no mean feat given that her hands were tied behind her back.

He stood, looming over the three of them. "You three have a sacred duty to perform, a duty that the future of humanity may yet depend upon. We need the information that the three of you possess."

"And if we don't?" The black-haired woman asked.

"Then the consequences will be dire." He explained. "Very dire indeed."

"Sounds fuuun." The blonde drawled.

He turned towards her, recognising her as Vic Hagen, the woman Shepard had pointed out. "You. You are the one who Desmond selected for his mission to the Dark Continent. Tell me, what do you know about the city there." He thought he could see Shepard indicating something out of the corner of his eye, but he dismissed it as unimportant.

"Well." She began, then looked up at him, a cheery grin on her face. "It's dark!" She smiled.

"That is hardly relevant." He replied. "What happened there. What became of our valiant forces in their fight to bring truth and order to this dark world?"

"Eyebrow." She replied and sniggered.

"Very well." He adjusted his glasses. "Since you have refused to cooperate with me, we will have to resort to more… drastic measures."

It was some hours later before they were returned to their cell on the Whale King. Even then, they waited some time before speaking. It wasn't until they'd felt the movement of the ship taking of that any of them felt secure.

"Very well then!" Rick began, in a very bad imitation of Ebonflak's voice. "For your continued impudence, I sentence you to… a room with a moose!"

They all laughed. They needed it right now.

Ebonflak's 'drastic measures'… hadn't been that drastic. They'd been poked, asked a few questions, glared at, asked some more questions and given several long silences, and then left alone with a moose. After a few hours he'd asked if they were ready to talk. Sandra had told him where he could put the moose. He hadn't taken this well, feeling that they were stronger-willed then he'd anticipated. As a result, they'd been returned to their cell while he thought of 'something else.'

"Good one. Rick." She finally spoke. "Who the frelling hell was that tool anyway?"

"The big cheese." Vic spoke. "The chief mucky-muck. The grand poobah. The toughest stain." She sniggered again.

"Yeah, I know that. Hell, I even saw his interview." She replied. "But what I mean is who did that big tool think? He's waffling on forever and ever about destinies and impudent masses and all that kind of carpet and doesn't actually say anything. He sounds like some carpet-eating villain form one of your books, Rick."

"Actually, he's giving me some great ideas." Rick replied as he picked up his sketchpad form the floor. "I liked the whole look of him."

"Useless, you are." Sandra muttered. "Still, we seem to be doing well so far."

"I hope we can talk again." Vic said. "He was funny."

Before Sandra could reply, the eyeslot opened. "You realise what's going to happen now." Shepard hissed from the other side. "It would have been easier if you'd just talked while you were with the moose."

"Yeah, well I didn't feel like it." Sandra replied.

"I don't understand." He said. "What are these people to you anyway?"

"If you can't figure it out by now, then don't bother." Sandra said.

"Whatever." He looked inside the cell. "Hagen. Tell me, what happened to the others, Desmond, Hallis and Snow. At least give me that much."

Once again, Vic appeared at the door without seeming to cross the intervening distance. "What happened?" She began. "I did."

No sooner had the fleet launched then it had once again begun to travel north, staying inside the wastelands as they approached the northern edge of the continent, heading towards the ocean. Reven's constant updates had kept the crew of the Hovercargo up to date with developments, allowing them to keep as close a tail on them as possible.

"Oh-oh." Anna said as she looked over a map. "This is not good."

"What's up?" Felix asked, walking over to her with the last of the good (well, not 'completely awful') coffee in hand.

Anna turned the map around towards him. A pair of paths had been marked out on the map, showing the course that both they and the enemy fleet were taking. "They're making for the ocean." She replied. "I'd guess, from the looks of things, they're heading into the Dark Continent."

Felix studied the map. "And if we follow their course directly, we'll end up in the drink."

Anna nodded. "Pants!" She shouted. "We have a problem here."

"What is it?" He shouted form the control station. 'I'm busy."

"At the rate we're going, we're going to fall into the ocean in a few hours."

"What?" He shouted back.

Fine, she thought. Climbing up to the control station, she dropped the map on Pant's lap. "This shows our paths, right?"

Pants studied the map. He could see their path and the estimated paths of the Enemy fleet. While the enemy's three-hour break had given them precious catch-up time, they were still significantly ahead. And the gap wasn't closing. "So?" He asked.

"So we're here." She pointed out. "And the enemy will be crossing over the ocean in about half an hour unless they change their course."

Pants paused. 'Wait a minute." He said. "The ocean?"

"Yes, water." She replied. "You know, Pants, the big blue wet thing?"

"Of course!" He slapped his forehead. "The ocean!"

"Yes, that ocean." She said. "Now I was thinking that we could do a go-around… here." She indicated on the map. "We cut through the Vinterlands and chance it going across the Skillaz ice field. At this time of the year it should be pretty solid, but there's a fair degree of risk involved-"

"Not necessary." Pants rpelied.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked.

"My dear, you forget that I am a Darth." He explained. "As such, do you really think that I would use a 'normal' Hovercargo? Dear me, no." He indicated to the control panel. For the first time, Anna could see that there were a large number of extra instruments and controls that had apparently been added after the original manufacture. "I long ago took precautions against such an eventuality."

He swept his hands across one bank of extra controls and instruments. "These controls allow me to convert the hovercargo to a sea-going mode. In this mode, we can travel across the ocean like a Hovercargo normally crosses the land. There is no need to worry about loosing our quarries." He explained.

"I see." Anna replied, somewhat unconvinced. "Well, if you say so." She stepped down from the control centre.

"Turn the Hovercargo into a ship?" Felix asked. "I'm not too sure if I want to trust this thing to keep me high and dry." He spat on the floor to emphasise his point. "I'm not to convinced of this guy's engineering skills."

"All of a sudden." Anna said. "I'm beginning to think that Z-One may have it good right now."

"Excuse me, Major?"

De Lyon blinked himself awake. He was in his bed, in his quarters on board the Null. Captain Sturm was standing over him. "What is it?" He asked as he sat up.

"Sorry to wake you, sir, but we have a report form Agent Collins." Sturm replied.

"No need to apologise." He said. "What does he say?"

"The A-X fleet has apparently passed grid FJ-1" He replied. "They're following the same route that Desmond's force used, as you predicted." He paused for a moment. "He predicts that they'll be at the city by sixteen hundred hours."

De Lyon nodded. "Good. Have everybody made ready to move out immediately."

"But sir, we won't reach the city until after them." Sturm replied.

"I understand." He said. "I will take my Zoid to meet them at the city. The rest of you are to go to grid P4Q-1 and begin construction. I'll join you there once my business in the city is concluded."

"Yes sir." Sturm saluted and left.

This was it, he thought. From here, there's no turning back. He had long ago realised that he had no regrets about what he was about to do. They'd all lied to him, used him and manipulated him to their own ends. It was particularly galling that one of those to do it best had been one of his own subordinates.

Now it was his turn.

Rose had been more then happy to cover for Sel while she took her squad out on "manoeuvres." She knew what Sel was up to, but didn't feel like informing anyone. It meant that Sel owed her another favour, and she had more leverage over her in case of an emergency. Besides, the implications of a security breach like this involving the daughter of one of the city's top military officials could be… interesting.

She'd been pretty much confined to the city since she got back form Chronos, and that was months ago. Even though she'd lived nearly her whole life indoors, it seemed to grate on her now more then it had in past. Possibly because she'd seen the outside world, she realised. She'd seen what life was like outside of this stuffy little cage and found that it was far better then anything this place could aver offer.

So she'd found herself a new job. Cade seemed to agree with her on the idea that De Lyon was up to something. At the same time, she couldn't get directly involved in the Special Operations Unit, which was under someone else's command. As a result, Rose had been acting as Cade's unofficial spy, watching certain people and seeing what they were up to.

Today she'd found an interesting one. She'd come across a pilot she recognised from the SOU and had been following her for the last few hours. Joanne Pilkington was a singularly dull person from her recollections. How she'd made it to the SOU was anyone's guess. Today wasn't proving to be any different from the norm.

Or was it?

She'd spent a lot of time talking to someone on her personal communicator, clearly trying to avoid talking through the regular lines, which could (and probably would) be monitored. After a while, she'd picked up a small package form somebody she met in a café, and then left. Interesting.

After that, she'd made a beeline for central command. Clearly she was up to something. It was very unlikely that she would be going to the central command, and definitely not alone. As she suspected, rather then using the main entrance, Joanne opted for a disused service entrance around one side. Confronted with a security access point, she pulled a card out of the package and used that to enter.

Fascinating, Rose thought. Well, two can play at that game.

Long ago she'd acquired a security card that had access to Central Command. It had taken some time and effort, but the payoff had been well worth it. Besides, he wasn't too bad looking. Waiting a moment after Joanne had gone through, she swiped her own card through the door and entered.

She slipped into a darkened corridor, quickly and quietly closing the door behind her. Listening carefully, she could hear footsteps in the distance, moving away. Trying to remain silent, she followed sounds through the darkened corridors.

Abruptly, they stopped. Looking around, Rose figured where she'd gotten to. There was an open maintenance door on the wall. Sloppy, she thought. Peering inside, she could see a ladder heading off into the depths, and no sign of Joanne.

No choice, she thought. She climbed down the ladder, trying to remain quiet. Reaching the bottom, she found herself lost in amaze of pipes and power conduits, similar to the room she'd found Amelia in. She peered around in the darkness, looking for some sign of her quarry. Then, Joanne provided one for her.

A light came on in the distance. Looking towards it, Rose could see that it was a computer screen, recessed into a wall. There was a figure kneeling next to it, presumably Joanne. Well, she thought, what are we up to?

She quietly moved closer, taking in her surroundings. It seemed to be more communications cables then anything else in here. As she approached, she realised that the wall was in fact a massive pillar, ascending into the darkness. Then she figured what it was; the central communications trunk, through which all the city's communications were run

She moved up behind Joanne before the other woman noticed. A diagram was up on the screen, showing layouts of all the city's access ways, both internal and external. Interesting.

"Funny seeing you here, Pilkington." She said.

Joanne spun around and looked up at her. From here, Rose figured, she probably looked somewhat menacing in the dim light. Perfect. "Captain O'Bannon." She began. "Uh, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you." She replied. "Down in the depths of Central command, accessing what looks like the controls for the city's security systems."

"Well..." She began, and then tried to grab at Rose's leg. Before she could, Rose seized her arm and twisted it.

"So tell me" Rose began. "What is De Lyon up to? Why are you doing his dirty work?"

"Let…" She began. "Let go of me."

"No." Rose replied. She kneed the other woman in the face, resulting in a rather satisfying cracking sound. Hooking her leg around, she kicked Joanne in the back, sending her sprawling forwards. Before Joanne could get up, Rose planted her foot on the back of her head. "Try harder next time."

Ignoring the other woman's protests, Rose switched on her communicator. "Cade?" She began. "It's me, O'Bannon. I caught one of the SOU trying to access the security control system. You might want to take a look at this."

Half an hour later, Rose found herself in Cade's office in the central command room. "You were right to contact me." Cade grudgingly admitted. Rose couldn't help but feel pleased with herself. "What you've just done is stopped one of the greatest potential security threats I've ever seen."

"Colonel?" Rose replied. "Care to explain?"

Cade picked up a disk from her desk, the same one that Rose had taken off Joanne. "This disk had the access codes to open every single access point in the city." She explained. "Everything from the front doors to the access lifts down to the main city to the Zoid hangers to the emergency escapes."

"So Joanne was trying to open up the city to an attack?" Rose asked.

"Probably." Cade replied. "There's more, however." She turned over the disk. "It also contained a destructive Virus that was programmed to attack specific targets. In this case, the control programs for the aforesaid doors."

"They would have been locked open, and we would have had no way to stop them." Rose concluded.

Cade nodded. "Exactly." She explained. "Whoever planned this, and I have a pretty good idea of who it was, wanted to open us up to an attack." She looked it over. "The enemy would have been able to come straight in through the front door. That's the cornerstone of our defensive strategy kicked out form under us right there."

"And you think it was De Lyon?" She asked. She'd expected as such, she just wanted to hear it from Cade.

Cade nodded. "Pilkington was a member of the SOU. It's a logical conclusion."

Before rose could say anything, the communicator on Cade's desk beeped. "Colonel?" A voice piped up. "Sorry to interrupt you, but we have a situation here."

Cade glared at the communicator. "I'm on my way." She stood. "You, with me." She said to Rose.

"Am I that valuable now?" Rose asked.

"No." She replied. "But I'm not going to leave you in here alone."

The pair of them walked out to the main control room. Rose could see that the big board was currently displaying a map of the area around Novo Zemalya. A cluster of red blips were heading towards the city, various ID tags attached to them. "Well?" Cade asked as she stood over a technician.

"Monitoring Station 3 detected a flight of seven unidentified ships passing through grid A3J-1" He replied. "Types confirmed as four Whale Kings, two Whale Sharks and a single Hammer Kaiser."

"Any identification in them?" Cade asked.

"Negative." He replied. "They're not ours and there's nothing to indicate that they're from any of the major Shelflands powers."

She turned to Rose. "Any ideas?"

"Snow's info gave us the size of the A-X fleet." Rose replied. "She put it at three Whale Kings, two Sharks and a Kaiser. It's possible that they've added an extra ship since then." She looked at the boards. "The numbers do fit."

"And they're heading straight for us." Cade replied. "And while to our knowledge nobody else in A-X has a copy of the journal, its possible that there were survivors from Desmond or Pie's units. After all, we never found Desmond's transport ship."

"And at the same time as these ships appear, someone tries to sabotage our security system and leave us wide open." Rose continued. "That can't be a coincidence."

"No." Cade replied, before turning to the Tech. "Put us on red alert. Recall all units to the city. And get me general Abbot immediately."

It had taken surprisingly little manoeuvring for Sel to get her squad some time for 'manoeuvres'. Her master plan was to lead them as far off course as possible, then 'accidentally' stray into restricted territory. Once there, she could show Bekka, Alex and Bob the Sovetski Soyuz ruins and give them the full story of what had happened.

She'd resolved to do this. She felt that they had a right to know the truth about their lives. It still wouldn't be easy.

She opened a link to Matt's Zoid. "Matt, can I ask you something?" She began.

"Sure." He replied. "What's up?"

"I never asked you…" She began. "I never asked you how you felt when you found out… everything. The room, the ruins, the ship, what Rose told us… all of that."

He nodded. "It was confronting to say the least." He explained. "But at the same time, not entirely unexpected."

"How so?"

Matt leaned back in his Zoid's command couch. "Many things about our lives never quite seemed… right to me." He explained. "The militarism. The paranoia. The fear of the unknown."

"We don't like anyone who's different to us." Sel said. "We see the outside world as being hostile. Dangerous even."

"After what happened with Chrom, why didn't we look outside for allies to ensure that nothing like that would happen again?" Matt asked. "Because our leaders saw the outside world as a challenge to their authority."

"It would be dangerous to allow too much contact with outside." Sel said. "Sending us into the outside world must have been a major step."

"Indeed." He said. "One of my former commanders once ordered me to kill enemy prisoners, simply so there was no risk of them escaping and informing the outside world of our existence." He continued. "That's one of the reasons why I was always so…" he paused.

"Go on." Sel said. She remembered her first battle. She had been about to crush the cockpit of a downed enemy Zoid when Matt stopped her.

"In a way kind of protective of you." He explained. "Sel, you're a wonderful human being. I just didn't want to see you become… become a cold killer like some any others have."

"You wanted me to be human." Sel said. "You knew something was wrong all along."

"I didn't want to see you become a part of it." He admitted. "I hoped that you, by remaining a good and decent human being would be different. Unlike those who currently run things."

She nodded. "I understand." There was a weak smile. "Thank you, Matt. Thank you for everything."

Before Matt could say anything, a beep from Sel's communicator interrupted her. Activating it, she was greeted by Colonel Cade's rather grim face. "Colonel?" She began.

"You and your squad are to return to the city immediately." Cade stated, a hint of anger in her voice.

Sel's heart skipped a beat. Did she know? "May I ask why?"

"An enemy fleet is heading straight for the city." Cade replied. 'We've spotted seven ships. We suspect they're form A-X."

Sel nodded. "Yes, colonel." She replied. "We'll be there as soon as possible." The link closed.

"Something up, captain?" Matt asked.

"That was Cade." Sel replied. "The city's under attack, Matt" She opened up a link to the entire squad. "Listen up, everybody. We're being recalled to the city."

"Recalled, Captain?" Bob asked. "Can I ask why?"

"There's a fleet of ships heading straight for the city." She explained. "At least seven of them. None of them are ours, and there's some suggestion that it may be A-X. If so, we have to stop them."

"Cool" Bekka said. "I've been waiting for some action for ages. Being cooped up inside that city was driving me nuts."

"If this is your idea of fun, I'd hate to see a bad time." Alex replied, dripping sarcasm. "Just a pity that this should happen on our big day out."

Is it? Sel thought. Or is this some ploy to get us back into the city so they can… She shook her head. No, now I'm being paranoid. It's my duty to protect the city, no matter what. She bought the Darkhorn around. "Enough chatter, everyone." She shouted. "We have a job to do."

The massive black Zoid tore through the air, the dark continent a blur underneath it. Despite the temptation to open it up to its fullest and achieve stratospheric flight, De Lyon had chosen to travel low to the ground in order to minimise the chances of him being detected before the time was right.

So far all was going well. The A-X fleet had shown up as he'd expected and were heading straight for the city. This would put them in the perfect spot for when he launched his plan. The fact that they'd bought Blackmore, Mortis and Hagen with them was an added bonus. It put everyone nicely in the one place at the same time.

His only concern was that Pilkington had failed to report in. This meant that her part of the operation, disabling the city's defences, had likely been compromised. It was a setback, but not a major one.

A series of red blips appeared on the long-range scanner, indicating the A-X fleet ahead of him. They were in a neat, orderly formation, steaming straight for the city, completely ignorant of what was going on. Perfect. Now was his time to strike.

Whale Shark Warlord

Over the Dark Continent

1600 Hours

Captain Henry Richards hadn't liked the sound of this plan from the very beginning. Almost nobody in charge seemed to remember that he'd been to this place before. He knew that nobody from Desmond's unit had come back alive. He'd heard the screams of sheer terror and the desperate cries for help across the communicators. And he'd been the last person to ever hear Desmond alive.

So when Ebonflak had asked him for the navigational information to reach the city, he'd naturally been a little weary. Ebonflak had explained that this time they were coming not as invaders but as allies. Henry, for some reason, wasn't assured.

This time, however, things had gone a lot easier. There had been no attempt to hide the fleet by crawling through canyons and valleys in the middle of the night. There had been no sudden electromagnetic storms to throw them off course. And there hadn't been a single instance of cruel and unusual geography leaping out to try and attack his ship.

So far, so good, he thought. Checking the navigational displays, he could see that they were nearing the city, If anything was going to go wrong, he figured. It would have happened by now.

"Captain!" A technician shouted, leaping up form his seat. "Unidentified Zoid closing from behind!"

"What?" He shouted, inwardly cursing himself for getting too optimistic.

"There's heavy interference." The tech began. "But whatever it is, it's closing in on us fast. Coming from direct stern."

"All hands!" He shouted. "Brace for impact! Helm, Take us up!"

Before anyone could respond, there was a terrible screeching sound of metal being torn asunder. The entire ship rocked, and then tilted heavily to the starboard. "We're hit!" A tech shouted. "No helm control! We're going down!"

Inside the central control room, Cade watched the main display screen in horror. A huge black Zoid had literally appeared out of nowhere and sliced through the hull of one of the Whale Sharks with some sort of blade concealed in its wing. The attack tore a huge gash in the ships side, severing the starboard control fin and leaving it belching flames and black smoke. From here, she could see that the ship was doomed.

"Get me captain Eisenbeck now!" She shouted at a technician. Eisenbeck's Reddler unit was on patrol in the area. They were the nearest unit to the enemy fleet and that… thing. She had to know what was going on.

"Yes, colonel." The tech replied. "I have him for you now."

Cade grabbed the headset. "Eisenbeck, this is Cade." She began. "I need you to return to the city as soon as possible." She'd sent his unit out to search for De Lyon's forces, but now there was a more immediate concern.

"What's the situation, captain?" he asked.

"The enemy fleet has come under attack by an unknown Zoid." She looked at it on the screen. It's general configuration resembled that of a Reddler, but it was far larger. "We don't know if its hostile, but we don't want to assume anything as yet."

"Yes, colonel." He replied.

Cade turned to Rose. "Tell me, captain." She began. "You've seen the outside world. You've been to the Shelflands. Have you ever seen or heard of anything like that…" she indicated to the screen. "That thing."

"Truthfully?" Rose replied. "No, I haven't." A part of her added, but I think I know someone who may have. "With your permission, Colonel, I want to join the rest of my unit. Whatever happens, we're going to end up with a potentially dangerous enemy on our doorstep."

Cade eyed her warily, as if to see if she had some hidden, ulterior motive. Deciding that she had none, she nodded. "Go. I have a feeling that we may need every thing we have to stop that creature."

Watching on one of several monitors, Ebonflak could see the doomed Whale Shark plummet towards the ground. Ignoring the distress calls from the crew, he switched to another monitor, this one showing the attacking Zoid. "Magnificent" he said to himself. "What a truly magnificent creature." By his estimate, it was almost as long as a Mad Thunder, with a wingspan nearly as wide as it was long.

"Such a magnificent Zoid." He began. "Truly, it must possess a power unmatched by any other in this world." He stood as he talked. "This is a power that I must possess!"

"Lord Ebonflak!" Vincent ran into the room, shouting as he went. "We're under attack! The Warlord is down!"

"I'm aware of the situation, Agent D'Allevera." He replied. "Inform the captain, and everyone else in the fleet that there has been a change of plan." He continued.

"My lord?" He replied. "What are your new orders?"

"We will land and disembark our crew compliments immediately." He announced. "Once on the ground, our troops are to engage the enemy Zoid and attempt to disable it."

"Disable it, sir?" he asked.

"Yes." Ebonflak continued. "For once we have captured that Zoid, we can harness its power for our glorious cause!" The thought of an alliance was forgotten now. This creature was truly what he needed in order to conquer the world. "And once we have that power, then we can finally bring order to this world!"

Despite what she'd said to Cade, Rose hadn't gone straight to her squad's ready room. Instead, she'd sprinted back to her quarters, not stopping for anything. No sooner was she in, then she had gone to the bedroom and grabbed Steelgrave's computer. She remembered him saying something about weapons he'd created. She had the sickening feeling she was seeing one of them now.

"What is it you want now, you-" He began, but she cut him off.

"Listen to me, Steelgrave." She hissed. "There is a Zoid outside, a huge black dragon Zoid. It's just torn a Whale King apart like it was a toy. Do you have any idea what that… that thing is!"

There was a pause. Then, the computer's speaker spluttered out what sounded like a very, very poor attempt to simulate laugher.

"What?" She snarled. "What's so funny."

"The Zoid you described." He began. "It's one of my creations. One I developed specifically to use to conquer the other Starriors. You primitive organic puddles would be nothing before it."

"What is it?" She asked, taken back. Steelgrave was prone to bluster and talking bigger then he was, but suddenly she believed him.

"My final creation." He replied. "The Gilvader."


	49. City on Fire

Hammer Kaiser Scarab

Darklonia Plateau, Dark Continent

1605 Hours

Ebonflak strode into the Scarab's main hanger, looking down at the assembled Zoid forces inside. These were the best that A-X had to offer. He knew that they would be able to achieve their new great task.

"Soldiers of A-X!" He began, speaking to all present in the bay, and the other ships via the comms system. "Your new task is a great and glorious one! You are to attack that black Zoid and disable it. Once we have its power within our control, then we, the secret ideological organisation of A-X will have the ability to rule the world!" He paused for effect. "This will not be an easy task to accomplish and there may be many, many casualties amongst you. However, it is a sacrifice that I am willing to make in order for us to bring order to this corrupt and decadent world!"

He descended into the bay where his own Zoid was waiting. "Oh, Radnor." He began.

"Yes, my lord?" Radnor replied, appearing next to him out of seemingly nowhere.

"What is the status of my Giga God Kaiser?"

"All systems have been repaired and should be fully functional, my lord." The Darth replied.

"Excellent." He climbed up into the cockpit and sealed the hatch. "All troops, prepare to disembark and fight for the glory of our cause!"

The Hammer Kaiser's main bay door opened, the Zoids flooding out onto the landscape. While their forces mostly consisted of Attack and Gravity Zoids, there were a few outstanding exceptions. Behind Ebonflak's Godkaiser was Radnor's Gul Tiger, flying on a set of lift fans mounted on its weapons port, while D'Avella's Iron Kong lead the troops disembarking from the Carnage. And behind Ebonflak's on Zoid was his elite cadere of Cannon Caesars.

Looking around, however, Ebonflak could see one thing. The Havoc, Major Shepard's ship, hadn't put down yet. He wondered what exactly was going on in there.

"Land and deploy the troops?" Shepard yelled. "Is he nuts?"

"But they are our lord's orders." Captain Tweedle replied. "And we must do what Lord Ebonflak orders."

"Forget that." Shepard snapped. "That thing can easily tear apart our ground forces." He looked at the dark Zoid on the monitor. He had no idea what its capabilities were, but he figured that it could tear his Greatsabre apart with no effort. If only he still had his Evil Pegasus, he thought. Maybe, just maybe that Zoid would have stood a chance.

Putting that thought aside, he assessed the situation. A plan began to form in his head, one that may just work. "Captain Tweedle, take us up."

"Up sir?" Tweedle stammered back.

"Yes." He said. "Then deploy all our Gravity Pteras and Glaive Quamas." He turned to Taro. "Move your Sabre Tiger to the Auxiliary launch bay, I want it secured to one of the landing pads and ready to deploy immediately."

"Hai, Kuroso-Sha." He replied.

John eyed him warily. "Have the technicians secure your Zoid to the bay. I want to be able to deploy your cannon in flight. And I want to see if you can get any extra power out of the cannon."

He bowed, and then departed. John watched him go, mentally wondering if he would ever be able to make sense of his comrade's speech and actions. Turning back to the screen, he evaluated the enemy Zoid. It was larger then a Salamander, he figured, with an overall size similar to that of a Deathsaurer. Such a Zoid, he figured, would be neither fast nor agile in flight. It was a weakness that he fully intended to exploit.

Form the cockpit of the Gilvader, De Lyon watched the A-X troops deploy. Just as he had planned, he thought. His analysis of A-X's capabilities and their predicted response to the situation had been spot on, he figured. Now for the next stage of his plan.

He opened up the Gilvader's throttle, climbing away from the few Gravity Pteras and Glaive Quamas behind him, and leaving a flight of Dark Reddlers in the dust. Looping around, the massive Zoid dived towards the A-X forces. Seeing him coming, the enemy troops opened fire. Their weapons fire filled the air, the shots harmlessly flying away from his Zoid. The poor fools, he thought. His Zoid was practically immune to their fire, but he could easily destroy them all. Not that he wanted to.

He flicked a switch on the auxiliary weapons console. Designed to operate the weapons attached to the Gilvader's Grade-Up ports, these controls had been specially modified to suit his needs and one of the devices he had attached to the Zoid. A small light flashed on to show that the sprayer system had been activated and was ready to begin operation.

He sprayer system mounted on the Gilvader's back had originally been used by the Special Operations Unit's sole Storm Tiger. Designed to disperse nanites over a wide area, it had been a vital part of his operation to capture the Gilvader in the first place. When they had adapted it for the new Zoid, its larger frame had allowed them to greatly increase the sprayer's capacity.

As he approached the A-X forces, he could see that they were firmly standing their ground rather then breaking and running. That was just what he wanted. He flicked a switch, activating the sprayer system. The pod on the Gilvader's back began spraying a fine grey mist in its wake, which settled across the A-X forces.

Concentrating, De Lyon reached out with his mind, His nanaite-enhanced consciousness expanded, reaching out through the Gilvader's communications system finding the mass-mind of the nanites now inside the A-X Zoids. Having established a connection, De Lyon seized control of them.

As one, the A-X Zoids stoped moving and firing, instead standing in place, seemingly inert. He imagined that right now, there would be chaos down there, with everyone trying to regain control of their apparently non-functional machines. Reaching out again, he issued them a new command. As one, the army of Zoids turned towards the armoured gates of Novo Zemalya and began marching towards them.

Unfortunately, the doors had not opened, despite what he had planned on. No matter. He had hoped to do this the east way, but he had other ways to get in. The Gilvader swooped down, then stopped, hovering in place in front of the doors. After a moment to prepare, the four plasma cannons in its wings, accompanied by its four gravity cannons and the two drillgin units opened fire.

Cade watched in horror as the city's massive doors crumpled under the black Zoid's attack. For all her life, she'd believed that the iron gates were the city's best, most impenetrable defence. Even the attack by Pie's forces and their Ultrasaurus hadn't shaken that belief. But now…

The black dragon Zoid fired again, the impact felt across the city as the dors were torn apart. Now they were vulnerable, she thought. And that monster is coming straight for us.

"Eisenbeck!" She shouted into her comms headset. "What's going on out there?"

"That… thing has destroyed the gates." He replied, nervously. "The A-X troops seem to be following it now. They're heading straight for the city…"

"I want that thing eliminated." Cade snarled. "I want it taken out by any means necessary. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Colonel." He replied.

Cade knew what she had just asked of them, but she also knew that she had to protect the city, no matter the cost. Turning back to the technician, she handed him back his headset. "Scramble all the Reddler forces to intercept that thing. Order all troops to prepare for immediate deployment to the old city." She paused. "And have the civilians prepare for evacuation to the shelters."

The Dark Reddler dived towards the enemy Zoid, its wingmen close behind it. Compared to them, it was similar in shape but far, for more massive. Lining it up in his sights, Eisenbeck opened fire with the twin back mounted cannons. Much to his surprise, the enemy Zoid rolled out of the way of the beams, then pulled into a steep climb.

Well two can play at that game, he thought. Eisenbeck followed him, pulling the Reddler into a near vertical climb and activating the boosters. He figured he could easily catch it; the Dark Reddler was faster then a normal Reddler, and he was using the boosters.

Instead, much to his surprise, the enemy Zoid accelerated, climbing even further away. Then, reaching the peak of its climb, it suddenly looped around and dived back at him. He veered out of the way, expecting a volley of fire enough to obliterate him and his machine. Instead, however, there was nothing save for a cloud of grey mist that followed in its wake.

He looped the Reddler around to follow the enemy, only to find it veering off course and heading towards the city, while reducing speed. He quickly checked the status board, only to find that everything was reading as normal. Confused, he opened up the throttle to return to the engagement.

Nothing. The Reddler continued its speed and course, ignoring the controls. He pulled the control stick sharply to the right, but there was no response. He wasn't even feeling anything through the neural link, he realised. It was as if he was locked out.

Looking over his shoulder, he could see the rest of his squad following him. Pressing a few buttons, he tried his communications system. That, at least, seemed to work. "This is Eisenbek." He began. "Can anyone here control their Zoid?" There was a chorus of 'nos' from the rest of the squad. They had been locked out.

He re-opened the link to the command centre. "Colonel, the enemy has a weapon that can take control of our Zoids." He began. "Do not attempt to engage, repeat do not attempt to engage."

Cade stared at the display screen. The enemy had a way to take control of their Zoids now. If she ordered their forces to engage them… it'd do more harm then good. They were trapped. "Order a full lock-down of the city. Seal all entrances to the lower city. Recall all the Reddlers that can respond, and have them moved to the stand-by hangers immediately. And do not allow any of our troops to engage."

"Captain Magyari's unit is still outside the city." The Tech replied. "If we seal off the city now then…"

Damn it, she thought. She knew what he was saying. He knew who was in that unit. No. The city must be protected, whatever the cost. "I know that." She said. "But it can't be helped. If we let the enemy get control of our Zoids inside the city, then all is lost. This way we may be able to ride it out."

"Yes, colonel." The tech replied.

I'm sorry, Bekka, she thought to herself. I have a duty to protect thousands of people. I can't put them aside for just one person. My only hope is that you will be able to forgive me some day.

"So do you think we're at the city yet?" Rick asked.

Before anyone could reply, the entire ship shook as if it was hit, sending the three of them sprawling across their tiny cell. "Good call." Vic replied.

For a moment there was nothing. Then Sandra raised her hand. "Quiet guys." She said as she moved over to the door. The eyeslot was closed, but she could hear sounds outside. People running. Shouting. Sirens. "We're under attack."

"I guess the locals aren't too happy to see us." Rick said.

"Is anybody?" Sandra replied. "I mean, everywhere we go there's generally some tool trying to take a shot at us or lock us up."

"Maybe they just don't know us." Rick said, casually shrugging.

"Maybe they know us too well." Sandra replied, flatly. "Now be quiet. I'm trying to figure out what's going-"

Before she could finish the sentence, the whole ship lurched forwards, sending everyone across the cell again. "What lousy miserable tool is driving this frelling ship?" Sandra shouted. "When I get my frelling hands on him I'll-"

"It's here." Vic suddenly said.

"What?" Both Sandra and Rick spoke at once. That was unusual, even for her.

"It's here." She repeated. "The god of the black flames. He's come for me."

At 283 meters long and weighing thousands of tons, the Whale King is neither fast, nor agile. It took a considerable amount of time for captain Tweedle to bring the ship around so he was now behind where the A-X fleet had put down.

The news from the ground was disturbing. Everybody's Zoids, as well as the ships, seemed to have been taken over by some weapon used by the mysterious attacker. All of a sudden, his plan to stay in the air rather then put down seemed to have paid. Off. Now for the execution.

"Launch the Gravity Pteras now!" He shouted. "Tell them to occupy the enemy Zoid so we can strike."

"Yes, Major." Captain Tweedle replied.

John had figured that the slow and clumsy Gravity Pteras wouldn't stand a chance against that monster, but he at least figured that they could distract it for a while before being torn apart. And that could be long enough. No sooner had the Gravity Pteras launched then he picked up the communicator. "Taro, this is Shepard." He began. "What's your status?"

"My Zoid is secured, So- uh, Major." He began. "I am ready to begin the operation."

"Excellent." He replied, then turned to Tweedle. "Open the Auxiliary platform."

Anyone viewing the ship form the outside would have been treated to the unlikely sight of the ships' aft launch bay lowering with a Zoid hanging from it. The bright red Sabre Tiger, equipped with a heavy beam cannon, blended in with the dark red of the ship's hull, but still was enough to stand out.

As john watched on the screen, he could see the enemy Zoid slice through one of the Gravity Pteras with its wing blade. Good. They were holding its attention for just long enough. "What's your status, Taro?" He spoke into the communicator.

"I am ready to fire, Major." He replied.

"Excellent. Fire at will."

A beam of energy shot out form the underside of the ship, flying straight at the enemy Zoid. However, at the last possible moment the beam reflected away from its body, bending away to the right and impaling one of the remaining Pteras. Momentarily stunned, John recovered quickly, grabbing the communicator. "What the hell happened there, Taro?" He demanded,

"I do not know, Major." He replied. "It's not an energy shield, that's for certain."

"Well fire again!" He shouted. "Maybe we can break through… whatever it is!"

Before Taro could reply, however, the enemy Zoid suddenly went into a rapid vertical climb, far faster the any machine of its size should have been able to move. "Track it!" He shouted. "Don't loose it!"

"All gunners, open fire now!" Tweedle shouted. Across the ships hull, numerous secondary cannons opened fire, filling the air around the enemy Zoid with cannon fire to no avail. The few shots that seemed to come close were deflected away in the same way that the Sabre Tiger's beam had. Then it went silent.

"What happened?" John asked.

"It fell off our scopes." Tweedle replied. "I didn't expect it to move that fast."

John looked around. "Retract the Sabre Tiger now!" He shouted. "All hands, brace for impact!"

"Just you wait a minute!" Tweedle shouted. "This is my ship. I make the decisions and I give the orders. Who do you-"

Before he could finish the entire ship was rocked by a thunderous explosion that sent people flying across the bridge. Sirens went off in the bridge and everywhere else as the ship began to list to one side. "What's ha-" John began, but was cut off by a hideous metallic screeching noise that rang through the entire ship.

Tweedle picked himself up the floor, pulling himself up on a status board. "Oh hell." He began. "This is not good."

"What is it?" John asked, leaning on the side of a chair.

"That… thing just cut us open from nose to stern." He replied in a panicky tone. "We're going down!"

John looked out the front viewscreen. The massive artificial mesa that protected the city was looming up in front of them. Which meant that if they didn't do anything, they'd end up ramming into its side. "How much control do we have, Tweedle?"

"Very little." The captain replied. "We can steer a bit, but no way are we staying airborne with what we've been through."

"That's good enough." He stated. He had a plan, one that just might work. "Steer the ship towards the doorway in the side of the mountain." The black Zoid had demolished the massive metal doors, and now the former A-X forces were marching towards the empty gap where they once stood. "Once inside, put us down as best you can."

"Yes major." Tweedle said, stammering. "I'll do the best I can."

"And order all pilots to report to the Zoid bays." Shepard continued as he turned to leave the bridge. "We may need them."

Sandra and Rick were sent sprawling across the cell again, while Vic just leaned against the wall. For the last few minutes she'd been like that, Sandra thought. Just standing and staring, while saying things that were, by her standards, weird.

Before they could begin to pick themselves up, there was a hideous metallic tearing noise, increasing in pitch as it continued. They both clutched their ears and gritted their teeth to block out the noise, which seemed to be coming from just outside the cell. Vic, on the other hand, just stood there and grinned.

"What-" Rick began. "What is that?"

"It's insanely powerful you know." Vic replied. "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight?"

The shrieking ended and, for a moment, all was peaceful. Then the ship suddenly listed to one side while the lights flickered on and off, sending Rick and Sandra sprawling again. "I am so frelling sick of this." Sandra began, when Rick cut her off.

"Hey, the door's open." He began.

Sandra stood and looked up. The door was indeed open; the magnetic lock must have disengaged at some stage when the power momentarily went out. "Tool. Well, let's not miss this chance."

She cautiously stepped outside. She could hear various sirens and alarms as well as feet running in the distance, but there was no sign of anyone around. Much to her surprise, however, she could feel a breeze on her face. Turning around, she could see where it was coming from.

There was a gash through the far wall of the corridor, on the other side form their cell. Something had cut through the ship's hull, reaching so far in that it had nearly cut into their own cell. A few meters closer and… she shuddered at the thought.

"That doesn't look good." Rick said, and whistled. "Any idea what could have done that?"

Sandra glanced at Vic, who was casually leaning against the torn wall. "No, none at all. And I don't intend to find out. She looked around. "Our best chance is to make it to the Zoid bay and try to figure things from there. If this ship is going down - which I suspect it is - we may be able to use it as our chance to get out of here."

The three of them ran towards what they guessed was the front end of the ship. Sandra had figured that if their Zoids were anywhere, they were likely in the forwards main Zoids bay. Of course, by now everyone would be there, which would probably make things interesting, But there was no way, Sandra thought, that she was going to let some A-X tool get behind the wheel in Spud. He deserved better then that.

A pair of surprised guards went down to her and Vic's attacks before they could respond, yielding them some firearms. Sandra let Rick and Vic take their X-S rifles, she figured that between Vic's incredible aim and Rick's stupid luck, they could probably hit something with them. Sandra just stuck with their pistols. They weren't a patch on what she usually carried, but they'd have to do.

Entering the main bay confirmed her suspicions. Enemy pilots were swarming all over the place, boarding and prepping their Zoids for combat. For the most part, the bays occupants seemed to be Gravity and Attack Zoids, but four others caught her eye. Spud, Rick's Command Wolf, Vic's Gunsniper and a red-and-black Greatsabre stood in one corner of the bay, with a conspicuously empty spot next to them. Sandra guessed that it would normally be occupied by the heavy beam cannon carrying Sabre Tiger she'd seen at Lazwegaz.

"Looks like we've found our rides." Rick said. "And they've even validated our parking."

"Let's go." Sandra ordered. He three of them descended from the gantry and climbed down to the bay proper. "Nobody movie!" Sandra shouted as she leaped off the stairs, a pistol in each hand. Behind her, Rick and Vic pointed their rifles at a group of enemy pilots. At these ranges and with the enemy this packed, she thought, those guns may actually be worth something. "Put them down!" She yelled. "Now!"

The enemy troops began to back off, several of them kneeling slowly. "Reach for the sky, boys!" Rick shouted, trying his best to sound like an escapee form a bad action flick. "Or else it's lead linings for all of you."

"Heh. Bang." Vic added, almost giggling again.

"What do you think you're doing?" A voice came form behind her. Sandra spun around, to find herself face to face with Major Shepherd. Her guns were pointed at his face, his gun at hers.

"We're getting out of here." Sandra replied. "And we're taking back the Zoids you took from us."

Shepard glared at her for a moment, before speaking. "In a few minutes, this ship is going to make an emergency landing." He began. "Then we're likely going to be swarmed by my former allies as well as that monster. And that's to say nothing of what the locals might throw at us."

"All the more reason to let us take them." Sandra replied. "We've got far more experience with these particular Zoids then any of you tools." She indicated towards the Liger with a flick of her head. "That Liger has a lot of personality. I doubt if any of your garbage truck drivers could keep him completely under control."

"Fine." He said, and lowered his pistol. "I remember the way you fought at Lazwegas. If that's normal for you, then we'll need every bit of it."

"We're far from normal." Rick said. Sandra rolled her eye, while Vic sniggered.

John stepped past her, heading for the Greatsaber. "One thing," he said as he passed. "You don't have any idea what that monster is?"

"What monster?" Rick asked.

"The big black dragon Zoid that's attacking our fleet." John replied. "I was wondering if it was some weapon used by these people."

"I doubt it." Sandra said. "And they probably wouldn't have shown us it even if it was theirs."

"So you don't know anything about it?" He asked.

"Oh I do." Vic said. "It's the one who killed me."

John stopped in his tracks. "What did she say?"

"She's been like that for a while." Sandra said, indicating to Vic who was climbing into her Gunsniper. "Well, that is to say she's always weird, but she's been even weirder of late. Since… well, since you took us onboard this ship, really."

"No, I mean about that creature." He continued. "Have you seen it before?" He asked.

"Maybe." She replied.

"Is it what attacked and destroyed Captain Buckingham's squadron?" He asked. "You were the only survivor of that unit."

"What's this?" Sandra asked.

Before John could reply, a voice shouted out over the speakers. "All hands! Brace for impact!"

De Lyon watched as the damaged Whale King fell towards the city. While he hadn't originally intended to destroy it, their attacking him had forced yet another change in his plans. Besides, he already had enough ships, and gutting it with the Gilvader's wing blades had been quite… enjoyable. Yes, that was the word.

He reached out to the collective minds of the A-X Zoids to issue them new orders. "All Dimantis and Gravity Ptera units re to come with me." He began. "The rest are to enter the city and destroy any enemy Zoids you find." That should keep everyone busy for a while. "All ships are to lift off and await my instructions."

A bleep from the sensors informed him of a bunch of new contacts appearing. Checking his sensors, he identified them as a Deadborder, a Darkhorn ad a trio of Heldigunners. Probably a group from the military who were on patrol and had now been cut off. He briefly considered seizing control of his units, but a check of the sprayer's status board showed him that the tanks were almost empty. No, best to save what he had for the next stage of the plan. He may yet need it. Besides, they couldn't do anything to him from there.

The Gilvader soared up to above the city, Demantis and Gravity Pteras following it.

If she was any less determined, Sel would have been surprised, possibly even shocked by what she was seeing. The huge iron doors that had protected Novo Zemalya for centuries, if not millennia, had been destroyed. A damaged Whale King was falling towards them, smoke billowing from a gash in its side. Behind it was a horde of various Zoids, apparently following it into the city. Another three Whale Kings, a Hammer Kaiser and two Whale Sharks were hanging over the city. And a huge black Zoid was in the middle of it all.

"Captain?" It was Alex, sounding more then a little uncertain. "What's going on."

"I don't know." She replied, her eyes fixed on the dark Zoid hanging over the city. "I can't raise anyone inside. It's possible I'm being jammed, however."

"I hope so." Alex replied. For a moment, he was quiet, then he spoke up. "Y'know, I thought I was ready for anything after seeing the real world, hanging around with Vic and the others and all that. But now…"

"I think we all feel like that." Sel replied. "We're just not good with the unexpected." She'd half expected something form Matt at this point, but there was nothing.

Instead, she opened a channel to the entire squad. "Listen up, men. The city is under attack by an unknown force. The main gates have been breached, and we cannot raise anyone inside the city. We are going to launch an attack on the enemy's flank and try to break through to the city itself. Hopefully, we can break through to our own forces."

She opened up the Darkhorn's throttle and charged towards the enemy force. Behind her, the rest of the squad followed. They're good men, she thought. I only hope they can make it through this.

"Ride the piggy!"

Vic whooped as the Whale King slammed into the ground, furrowing into the hard pavement of the city's main street. Inside the bay, men and equipment were thrown around while the Zoids rocked on their secure tie-downs. The wail of sirens all but drowned out the horrible screeching sounds of the Whale King digging into the ground as it went. After a short eternity, the ship ground to a halt.

Looking around the bay, Sandra could see a mess of damaged equipment, dazed and wounded men and a few Zoids that had broken partially lose of their moorings. However, for the most part, everything seemed intact. Seemed.

"Move out!" Shepard shouted over his Zoid's PA system. The ties containing her Zoid, and all the others, were released, allowing them to move. The main bay opened, indicating that at least some of the systems on the ship were functioning. His Greatsaber ran out of the bay, a flurry of smaller Zoids following it.

"What's the plan, Sandra?" Rick asked.

"Plan?" She said. "First thing we do is we get out of here. This flying crapbox is going to become an easy target for the zillion or so tools outside. Then we try to find Sel or someone else in authority and try to figure out what's going on."

"It's the end of everything!" Vic shouted rather cheerily. "Hooray!"

"Right." Sandra muttered. Cautiously, she guided the Shield Liger out of the ship, the Command Wolf warily following it, while the Gunsniper seemed to be skipping along almost merrily. No, something was not right here, Sandra thought. More so then usual.

Rick interrupted her train of thought with a loud whistle. "Take a look at that." He said, the Command Wolf's head looking up. Looking around, Sandra found what he was talking about. There was a huge gash torn along the length of the Whale King's hull. She couldn't begin to imagine what could have done that.

"Tool." She muttered. "What are we up against?"

"Never mind that!" Rick shouted. "We've got bad guys incoming!"

Looking down at her scope, Sandra could see that it was crawling with blips closing in from all sides. All of them registered on her system as hostile, she realised. "Great." She muttered. "How do we tell Shepard's tools form the rest of the tools?"

"Kill 'em all." Vic replied. "Let Bob sort 'em out."

"I guess the best plan is to assume that they're friendly if they don't instantly shoot at us." Rick replied. "And just assume that the two Saberkitties are on our side for the moment."

"That's fair." Sandra replied as a pair of Gravity Saix emerged from around the side of the Whale King's hull. "So who are you two tools with?"

"Don't shoot us!" One of them yelled over his PA system.

"Yeah! We can't control our Zoids!" The other one added. Before either pilot could say anything further, both Saix broke into runs, coming straight for Sandra's Zoid.

Opening up the throttle, Sandra leaped to one side of the Saix's charge, firing the back cannons as she went. The shots struck it on its flank, just as a second volley from Rick knocked it down. The second Saix had more luck however. Leaping over the back of its downed comrade, it all but landed on the Shield Liger. Desperately backpedalling, Sandra threw up the energy shield to keep it at bay.

The enemy zoid growled at herm and then launched the large, sword like missile that was mounted on its back at near point-blank range. Much to Sandra's surprise, rather then exploding the missile tore into the shield like a blade. Before the Saix could follow up, however, it was staggered by a volley of hits from the Gunsniper. Before it could get up, Vic leaped at it, digging her own Zoid's claws into its neck.

"Kitty, kitty." Vic hissed. "Meow."

"They're none to smart, are they?" Rick said as he checked the Saix he'd disabled.

"They're probably being remotely controlled from somewhere." Sandra replied. "Or run by some sort of AI system. They can fight, they just don't respond well and probably can't handle more then one opponent at a time."

"Shouldn't we try to rescue the pilots then?" Rick asked. "After all, they are kinda trapped in their own machines."

"They're A-X tools, unless you'd forgotten." Sandra replied. "They probably would be trying to kill us anyway."

"That's fair then." Rick added. "No sense in wor- Incoming!"

The three of them scattered as a volley of missiles tore up the pavement and a few nearby buildings. Looking towards the source of the attack, Sandra spied a trio of Gravity Saurers, accompanied by numerous other attack Zoids and a Cannon Ceaser. Definitely more then they could handle at any one given time.

"New plan!" She shouted. "Get the frelling hell out of here!"

The three Zoids turned and ran off in different directions before their enemies could respond. "So what do we do now?" Rick shouted over the com link.

"Try to stay alive!" Sandra shouted back. "We'll think of a plan when we're not outnumbered four to one."

"You should try dying some time." Vic added. "Its all together a unique experience."

Sandra didn't even want to know what she meant by that one.

Pants sat in his control seat, quietly hoping that something, no anything would happen. He'd spent the last zillion days cramped up inside this metal hellhole on hoverskirts with a group of raving madmen who were all doing their best to drive him nuts. If not for the fact that his vengeance relied on him finding Rick first, he would have given up and gone home long ago. As it stood, he had to complete his mission.

To his surprise, it was Reven, probably the second most annoying of all his passengers, who broke the tedium. It was her turn as the pathfinder, something he was glad of. It meant that she wasn't in here and making his life a misery.

"Uh, guys." She began, surprisingly apprehensively. "I think they've arrived at their destination."

"You think?" Anna began, standing next to him at the command station. He hated it when she loomed over him, which was something she did rather option. "What's happening there, Reven?"

"Weeeeeell…" She began. "Their fleet arrived at a mesa and were attacked by a big black dragon Zoid that I didn't recognise. It chopped up one of the Whale Sharks and then gutted the Whale King they were on, which has now crashed inside the mesa - oh, did I mention that there was a door in the side of the mesa? I say was because the big black dragon thing blew its doors off, so now the Whale King has gone down inside it and there's now a zillion odd Zoids charging inside the mesa for heaven alone knows what reason."

There was a long, long pause.

"What!" She yelled.

"That's…" Anna began. "Its not what I had expected."

"But the ship they're on has gone inside the mesa." Pants said. "And you didn't see them leave it or anything like that before it went in?"

"No." She replied. "Which means that they're probably inside." She added in a tone that suggested she was talking to a chid.

"Right." Pants said. "Everyone, get ready to launch. Z-One, I want you out first to provide additional air cover. Hook up with Reven and try to clear us a path through their forces. Once we're in, establish e defensive perimeter around the Hovercargo and begin a sweep of the area." Everyone stood staring at him. "Well? What are you waiting for? GO!"

Pants watched as they scurried away. Soon, he thought. As soon as he had fought his way into the enemy base, breached their lines, located Rick, bought him back, fought off the remaining enemy Zoids and arranged a suitable venue, he would have his vengeance.

"You'll see!" He shouted to himself. "You'll all see!" He burst out laughing, and then stopped when he realised that everyone was looking at him. "What?"

The Hovercargo literally smashed through the rear lines of the enemy force, the enemy Zoids in its path either knocked aside or crushed underneath it. Undeterred, it continued on its path into the city, only stopping once it reached the Whale King. Once there, it began the process of unloading the Zoids onboard; a process slowed by all of them being too big and heavy to be launched off the top catapult. Stuart's Dibison was the first out, immediately charging into battle the instant it hit the ground.

"Stuart, wait-" Anna shouted as she watched the Dibison charge off. No, there wasn't much point to trying to keep him under control, she thought. She'd tried in past and it had rarely worked, and it certainly wasn't going to be of any use now, after he'd been cooped up onboard the Hovercargo for so long.

The Redhorn leaped off the ramp, immediately coming under attack by a Gravity Saurer. Several shots dig into the Redhorn's flank, doing little more then armour damage. Slewing the main cannon around, Anna riddled it with fire from the various weapons mounted on her Zoid's back. The Gravity Saurer staggered, severely damaged by not out of action.

Much to her surprise, rather then retreating after a volley like that, it charged straight at her. Seeing no better option, Anna turned into its path, meeting it head on with her Redhorn's reinforced front end. The Gravity Saurer was tossed aside, one leg torn from its mounting. Looking down at it, it seemed to be inert, its control system having probably frozen.

"Why did he charge at me when he knew that would happen?" She asked herself. "Who are these people?"

"A-X soldiers, from the looks of things." Felix replied as his Black Rhimos stepped off the Launch ramp. "They're terrorists, but they're not that fanatical or stupid."

Anna was about to ask how he knew that, when another volley of fire tore up the ground near her Zoid. Tuning to the source of the attack, she could see a lone Diloforce standing nearby, hissing at the pair of them. Before it could fire again, a pair of blasts from the Rhimos' main cannons knocked it out of action.

"Check this out." Felix said as the Rhimos walked over to the downed Zoid. "There was no pilot on that thing."

"What?" Anna asked.

"Yup." Felix replied. "Either he got off before the Zoid attacked us, or the Zoid was being run by remote control."

"Interesting." Anna commented. "I wonder-"

"Look out!" Felix shouted. Glancing around, Anna could see a Cannon Caesar emerge from behind the Hovercargo. Wasting no time, she opened up the throttle on the Redhorn, steering away from the enemy Zoid while opening fire with her beam gattling cannon. The fire raked the side of the Cannon Caesar, which replied with its back mounted dual cannon pod. The shots hit the Redhorn in is already damaged flank, shaking Anna around in the cockpit.

Before the enemy Zoid could follow up, Felix's Rhimos opened fire with its dual cannons, tearing armour from its hip and flank. As if momentarily confused, the enemy Zoid turned towards the Rhimos and then back to the Redhorn, the pilot apparently unsure about what to do next.

Before it could attack, however, a burst of weapons fire hit it in the back, sending it sprawling forwards. Using this opportunity, Anna opened fire on it along with Felix. The enemy Zoid shook under numerous impacts, before finally collapsing and remaining inert.

"Thanks for that-" Anna began, but then stopped as she saw the Zoid stepping out form behind the downed Cannon Caesar. It resembled her Redhorn, but was black with green eyes that glowed in the darkness. A Darkhorn, she thought. What is it doing here?

"Who are you?" A female voice came form the Darkhorn's PA system. "And what are you doing in my city?"

"We came here looking for some friends who have been kidnapped." Anna replied. 'We didn't expect to find this... place." She looked around fir the first time taking in what she was seeing. They were inside a ruined city, which was, in turn, inside a massive cavern. What is this place, she asked herself.

"Who are they?" The Darkhorn pilot asked.

"Three mercenaries we work with." Anna replied. "Sandra Blackmore, Rick Mortis and Vic Hagen-"

"You're a friend of Sandra's?" She seemed surprised by this. "And they're here?"

"We think so." Anna replied. "They were on that Whale King." She indicated towards the downed ship. "But we have no idea where they are now."

"Right." The woman replied. "I'll get my men to search the city. You two should stay with me for the moment. Are there any others with you?"

"There's a Dibison, a Storm Sworder and a Sinker." She replied. "And a -"

She paused. What the hell was Pants piloting anyway?

Rick's Command Wolf loped through the rubble-strewn streets, nimbly jumping around debris and obstacles. Swerving to the right, he ducked behind a part-ruined building and waited. Within moments, a pair of attack Zoids appeared, a Guntiger and a Saberlion, both charging at him. Popping up the cannons over the wall, Rick opened fire from behind cover. The Guntiger was hit and went down instantly, but the Saberlion managed to leap past his attack.

Landing in front of the Command Wolf, the Saberlion snarled before pouncing on the larger Zoid. Rick veered out of the way, and then snapped at the Saberlion, grabbing its rear leg in the Wolf's jaws. Thrown off by the added weight of the Wolf, the Saberlion crashed to the ground, its leg bent badly out of shape.

"That was close." He began, but a warning from the sensors cut him off. A pair of shots went past the Zoid, blowing chunks out of the wall he had been hiding behind. Looking around, he could see the source of the attack. A pair of Maccurtis, transformed into their weapon platform modes, had taken up positions on top of a pile of rubble.

Opening up the command Wolf's throttle, he skipped out of the way of their fire. Before he could reply, however, they continued their attack, pinning his Wolf down. I can't stop long enough to fire back, he thought. Clever. Rick's usual strategy relied on running, firing and running again, but these two were doing well to counter him.

Suddenly, the ground underneath the two Maccurits began to move. One of them stumbled down the mound as a sleek, black and green Heldigunner emerged from the rubble. Before either of them could respond, the Heldigunner opened fire on the downed Maccurtis, gutting it with a volley of fire to its weak underside. The second one turned to face it, only to be taken out by Rick's cannons.

"Funny seeing you here." A female voice came from the Heldigunner's cockpit.

Rick blinked for a second. "Bekka? Is that you."

"Yup." She replied. "Who else would it be?"

"Well..." He began, but couldn't think of a snappy comeback. "Its, uh, good to see you."

"You too." She replied. "So, as I was saying, what are you doing here?"

Before Rick could reply, another familiar voice interrupted him. "Rick R. Mortis, I have found you! Prepare for my vengeance!" The pair of them turned to see a rather unlikely sight. Advancing through the rubble was a black and silver Malder, equipped with what appeared to be a pair of Gojulas Supercannons, one on each side of its shell.

"Oh, hi Pants." Rick casually replied. "Funny you being here."

There was a pause. "Yes well..." Pants began. "I followed you here, Rick!" He shouted. "So I could get my vengeance on you for all you did to me!"

"Who is this nut?" Bekka asked.

"Darth Pants, my arch enemy." Rick explained. "He interrupted our baseball game back in Bed Springs, remember?"

"Oh yeah." She replied. "I remember now."

"...anyway, I have come for my vengeance with this, my latest ultimate creation..." he began, and then paused, "The Mighty, Mighty Malder!"

"That's a lot of hyperbole." Rick said. "But I can't fight you right now."

"And why not?" Pants shouted, angrily.

"Because, there's a lot of hostile enemy Zoids around all trying to kill us." Rick explained. "And they're attacking her home." The wolf indicated to the Heldigunner. "And I've got to stop them."

"Fine." Pants replied. "But as soon as we have defeated the enemy, then it will be time for my vengeance."

"Is he always like this?" Bekka asked.

"Yep." Rick replied. "You get used to it after a while."

"A while?" She asked. "How often does he doe this?"

"Every couple of months or so." Rick replied. "I think this is the fourth time now."

"Fourth?" She asked. "Don't you ever get sick of it? I mean, I could whack him for you if you wanted."

"Naw, its kinda fun." He replied. "Besides, we've got other things to worry about now."

"Why is it always me?" Sandra asked herself. "Why do I always seem to attract the weirdoes?" A blast from the Gul Tiger pursuing her seemed to punctuate the point. Skewing the Liger to one side, she ducked away form the blast before running off at speed. "Bog off, tool fairy!"

The Gul Tiger, clearly not wanting to give up its prey, followed after her, managing to closely tail the Shield Liger in the narrow confines of the ruined city. Sandra wished that she could remember more of the layout form the last time she fought in here. She tried to keep an eye out for familiar landmarks, but so much of the city seemed the same; drab grey concrete ruins.

On he right, something caught her attention; an onramp to a section of elevated roadway. She remembered this from her last visit there. It was form here that she had first spotted Vic in the Deathsaurer. Veering the Liger onto the entrance ramp, she charged up onto the highway. The Gultiger followed her, its short legs shuffling around for a firm grip on the roadway. Seeing an opportunity, Sandra fired several shots form her tail cannon at the Gultiger. The bright yellow Zoid dodged out of the way, and continued the chase.

Sandra spotted something ahead, and smiled to herself. Even thought the Gultiger was faster then her Liger, its short legs reduced its mobility somewhat. Like the Zeekdober, it was built for speed and precious little else. Spotting a gap in the road where an overpass had collapsed, Sandra opened up the throttle and charged straight at it, leaping at the last moment. The Liger soared across the gap, barely making a safe landing on the other side. "Lets see the tool make that," she said to herself.

The Gul Tiger took a running leap, and then stopped in mid-air as the hover-fans on its back kicked in. Looking like nothing so much as a kitten being held by the scruff of its neck, the Gul Tiger continued the chase after her. Well, so much for that plan, she thought. It had achieved nothing, save for making the Gultiger look sillier then it had before.

Leaping off at the next exit, she took the Liger around a city block in a tight circle, hoping to loose her pursuer. Instead, a missile detonating just near her indicated that, while the Gul Tiger had vanished, she'd picked up a pair of new ones. A pair of Glavie Quamas swooped down behind her, trying to close the distance to her Zoid.

"Now I know what Shepherd meant about their pilots." She muttered. Normally it would take a very brave or incredibly skilled pilot to fly a Zoid inside a city like this. The fact that right now the pilots weren't able to control their Zoids meant that they probably had little, if any, regard for their own safety.

The opened fire with the back cannon turret, spraying shots at the pair of them. She didn't hit, but it was enough for them to have to move and loose their best shot at her. She fired again at them, this time the shots going high. The two Zoids ducked to dodge her fire, coming closer to the street level.

"Perfect." The Liger ducked under the highway overpass it had been travelling over beforehand. Designed to allow Zoids to pass underneath it, there was more then enough room for her to go under. One of the Glave Quamas, its AI (or whatever) too focussed on chasing her, didn't make the distinction and ploughed straight into the side of the overpass, crashing through the other side and hitting the ground, its wings and body a tangled mess. The other one, however, was luckier, passing straight over its damaged counterpart.

"Tool." She muttered. "Still got to get this guy off my date."

As if in reply to her cursing, the Glave Quama suddenly broke away. Looking up, Sandra saw weapons fire coming form some sort of flying Zoid that was chasing it. Wondering what it was, she saw a brief glimpse of her rescuer as it passed.

"A Sinker?" she wondered. "What's it doing here?"

A warning bleep from the sensors yanked her attention back to the current situation. A Cannon Caesar stepped out right in front of her, opening fire with its head and back mounted weapons. Sandra desperately threw the shield up, but not before the Liger took several hits that sent it sprawling. Thrown against the side of the cockpit, Sandra fought to keep the Liger upright before it could attack again. While she was far faster then it was, she knew it carried more weaponry and armour.

Before the Cannon Caesar could attack again, a loud roar came from the other side of the rubble-strewn intersection. A black and green Zoid emerged form the darkness, snarling at the enemy machine. A Deadborder, she thought. Never thought I'd be actually glad to see one of those. Usually when Dark Zoids showed up, things went bad for Sandra. This time was proving to be a pleasant exception.

The Deadborder slowly stomped towards the Cannon Caesar, the two Zoids roaring at each other. The Cannon Caesar suddenly charged, only to receive a full volley of fire form the Deadborder in the face. Badly damaged, it swayed on its feet before collapsing. Moving in, the Deadborder approached it, but before it could close, the Caesar rolled back upright, and tried to strike at the Deadborder with its jaws.

"No you don't!" Sandra yelled. Leaping up, the Liger opened fire with its two heavy beam cannons, tearing into the armour and digging deep into the Caesar's damaged hip. Weakened, the Zoid was unprepared for the Deadborder's attack. The Dark Zoid snapped its mouth shut on the Caesar's neck, disabling the enemy Zoid. For a moment, it held it in place, and then dropped its limp body.

"You okay there?" Matts voice asked over the Deadborder's PA system.

Sandra nodded. "Yes, thanks." She replied, somewhat taken back by the savagery of the Deadborder's assault.

"I didn't expect to see you here." He explained. "But when I saw a Shield Liger fighting an enemy Zoid, I somehow guessed it was you."

"It's a long and involved story." Sandra replied. "But the short answer is that not everything here is hostile."

"How so?"

This should be a good one to explain, she thought. "A-X were coming t attack the city or sign a peace treaty or something like that, but instead were ambushed by a huge black Zoid. Somehow, something, possibly that Zoid, took control of most of their own Zoids, and has launched a full-scale attack on the city."

"I saw that Zoid outside." Matt replied. "It's like nothing I've ever seen."

"Me neither." She said. "But there are some A-X guys here on our side. There's a pair of Sabre Tigers, one black and one red, which are piloted by two of their top officers. Last I saw they were still with us. The rest have Attack or Gravity Zoids, so they probably haven't lasted too long against superior numbers."

"So how do we tell what's hostile or not?" Matt asked.

"Best way is to-" Sandra said, but before she could finish there was a loud explosion that seemed to rock the whole cavern. One of the massive lights that provided the illusion of daytime fell from the roof, smashing to the ground near the pair of them. "What was that!" She suddenly yelled.

"I don't know." Matt replied. "But it might be best if we find the others as soon as possible."

De Lyon looked down at the burning craters on the top of the artificial mountain. The Gilvader's weapons had proven to be more then even he had hoped for, capable of defeating the massive gates that had protected Novo Zemalya from attack for centuries. Now they would be his key into the city's heart, allowing to take what he wanted.

The Black Zoid reared up, its wings flapping to hold it into place as it charged its weapons. Ready to fire, it dived down to bring all its weapons to bear. The two twin plasma cannons, four gravity cannons and the drillgin units pulverized rock and super-hardened ferrocrete into dust, revealing the city below.

Looking down onto the now exposed city, he could see what he wanted, the objective that he had started all this over. It was now within his grasp. Sending a command to the Demantis units under his control, he ordered them to descend into the city. The next stage of the plan was underway.

John wheeled his Greatsaber around, firing on the attacking Gravity Saurer as he went. The shots form his weapons dug into its side and hip, crippling it and giving him enough time to strike. Leaping at it, he dug the Sabre's fangs into its neck, crushing the systems within and all but decapitating the Zoid. That's one less to deal with, he thought.

The reports he'd been getting from his men weren't looking good. The enemy-controlled Zoids outnumbered his men at least four to one. To make it worse, his troops had no way of knowing if they were hostile unless they opened fire on them first, which meant that many of his solders were being taken out before they could fire back. Additionally, the enemy machines were fighting with suicidal disregard orf their pilots safety, making them that much more dangerous. Form what he'd put together, his own force was nearly done for.

Shaking loose the wrecked Zoid, he was about to move on when a missile struck his Zoid from behind, sending it stumbling forwards. A second Gravity Saurer had moved in on him while he was taking out the first. Before it could follow up its attack, however, a volley of beam weapons struck it on its flank. Turning to the source of the attack, he could see Hagen's Gunsniper charging at it, firing wildly. The Gunsniper sent enough ordinance into the Gravity Saurer to knock it out of action, and then kept going.

The smaller Zoid leapt on the downed Gravty Saurer, digging its claws and teeth into the wrecked Zoid's flanks. The Gunsiper tore out chunks of machinery in its teeth and then flung them aside in a terrifying, almost primal display of rage.

"Hagen!" He shouted over the comms link. This may be his last chance to learn the truth of what happened.

"What?" She replied, a twisted grin on her face, her pupils seemingly shrunken to dots.

"What happened to Desmond and the others!" He shouted. "Tell me, I need to know!"

"I did." She replied, her voice almost a whisper.

She did? What did she mean by that? And then he realised what it was. His assessment of her he'd made for Desmond was based on the service record of Victoria Hagen, a young, naive and nervous Zoid pilot. Instead what he'd found was a dangerous madwoman.

Before he could do or say anything else, the whole city seemed to shake. Huge chunks of the roof crashed to the ground, crushing buildings, roads, Zoids or whatever else was beneath them. For the first time ever, real sunlight streamed into the city form the sky above, rather the artificial light of the massive lamps. And a huge black shape hovered over the city, the dark Zoid that had attacked the fleet earlier.

Seeing it like this as opposed to from the bridge of the whale king made him realise just how large the Zoid was. He figured that it had to be almost as long as a Madthunder, and have a wingspan greater then that of a Salamander. It seemed to be bristling with weapons, while a pair of wicked-looking horns sprouted form its head. A pair of buzzsaws were visible on its wings, and another two were mounted on its back below two of the weapons pods.

It truly was a monster Zoid, he thought. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before, a nightmare given form and substance.

Vic's Gunsniper seemed to stagger backwards, and then tripped over, landing on its backside. even then, it tried to crawl away, looking up at the monster. "No!" She shouted. "Don't come near me! Not again!"

Again, he wondered what she was talking about. Then he realised. Hagen had been the only survivor of a unit wiped out by some unknown attacker. Could this have been it?

As he watched, a horde of Dimantis descended into the city. Rather then landing inside the city, however, they vanished inside the large shaft at its centre. Now he was confused. What was it up to?

Cade looked up at the display board. For the most part, she wished she didn't need to. First the city's main doors had been destroyed. Then it had been invaded by a horde of enemy Zoids who were now fighting in the upper city. Now the city's roof had been blown off, with the huge black Zoid and a horde of Demantis entering into the city proper.

"Colonel!" A tech shouted. "We have reports of enemy Zoids inside the core section!"

"What?" She yelled out. "Put it on screen, now!"

A new window opened on the main screen, showing a view from the base of the power core. panning up. Cade could see the open roof with the massive black Zoid hanging over it, while hordes of Demanis attack Zoids descended into the core. "What are they doing?" She asked.

Her question was answered for her when one of the Demantis started attacking a power supply tube going from the core to the city. Setting into the cable with its claws, the Demantis severed it before moving on. Looking across the picture, she could see that others were doing the same.

"Colonel!" A tech shouted. "West block three has lost power!"

"East industrial sector reports total power failure."

"We've lost all power to the number two Shipyard, colonel."

The reports were coming in from all across the city. The city was being forcibly separated from its power supply. And there was nothing she or anyone else could do about it. "Order all civil defence teams to deploy immediately." She shouted. "Have all emergency units go to standby. Route auxiliary power to essential services and this command centre only." They had made precious few allowances for running the city without access to the power core itself. It had never seemed possible that it would be destroyed.

"It would appear that our situation has changed for the worse."

She turned around to see Abbot standing behind her. "General?" She'd called for him when the Whale Kings had first been detected, and had since forgotten about him while she tried to control the situation.

"The power core." He replied. "We never took any precautions against loosing it."

"No." She admitted. "We never thought it was possible."

"We were arrogant." he replied. "Foolish, overconfident in our isolation and our protection. We believed that we could never be harmed by the outside world."

"We just never figured on one of our own turning against us." Cade finished. "This whole thing has been planned by somebody who has insider knowledge of our city. We never believed that anyone would want to turn on us."

"I recall saying something about the day coming when we may need to contact the outside world" He said, changing the topic. "I think that day may arrive soon."

"What is that... thing?" Rick asked, his Command Wolf looking up at the black Zoid hanging over the city.

"It can't be..." Pants replied. "The legendary beast of destruction. The lord of the black flames. The dark dragon." He mumbled off the titles. "It's the Gilvader."

"The what?" Sel asked. Her Darkhorn stood, its beam cannon trained on the Gilvader's form. A part of her knew that she couldn't do anything to stop it, but she felt that she had to do something. She just had no idea what.

"A legendary Zoid, who's power is said to rival that of the King Gojulas." Pants replied. "It lived in ancient times, and is said to have been capable of great destruction. Some say that it was used in the wars that occurred during the early years of human life on Zi." He said. "I've heard the legends, but I never dared imagine that I would see one for real."

A quartet of huge shapes passed overhead, Sel instantly recognising them as a trio of Whale Kings and a Hammer Kaiser. "Now what's it doing?" She asked. Long cables snaked down from the ships, the Gilvader following them down.

"I don't know." Pants replied. "I can sense a great power within it. Not just the power of the Zoid itself, but something... else. Something different."

"How can you do that?" She asked.

"I am a Darth. It is an ability we have." He replied, his awe mixing into arrogance, as if he was talking down to her.

"A Darth." Sel muttered to herself. There were no Darths amongst her people, she knew that much. That was apparently because they were 'different' to everyone else on Zi. From what she had been taught, they used technology to allow everyone to have the gifts that only the Darths had in the outside world. She didn't fell like she had any of the abilities that Pants had spoken of. She couldn't sense anything about the Gilvader, save for it making her feel somewhat apprehensive.

Then again, she'd aslo been taught that all Darths were dangerous maniacs who created twisted, monstrous Zoids. Pants and his Malder didn't seem to fit any of those descriptions.

The ground underneath their Zoids shook, as if there was an earthquake. There was a tremendous tearing noise, like the sound of shattering rock. Slowly, the four ships began to ascend, the Gilvader following it upwards, the setting sun reflecting off its shiny black wings. Something was emerging underneath it, a massive object that dwarfed even the huge black Zoid. It began with a rounded, vaguely conical tip that resembled a gigantic version of an Iron Kong's heavy missile, but was a dull grey in colour. It's surface was lined with conduits, vents, tubes and other technological apparatus.

Then she realised what it was.

The power core, the heart of Novo Zemalya. An ancient artefact that the city had been built around, which seemed to predate all human civilization on the planet. The source of all her city's power, the one thing that made the otherwise desolate place liveable. And the Gilvader was taking it.

"No!" She shouted. The Darkhorn charged forwards through the city streets, heading straight towards the centre of the city. She squeezed the trigger on her master weapons control, holding it until her knuckles turned white. The Darkhorn's various back-mounted weapons spat fire at the Gilvader, the rounds either flying away in various directions or seemingly harmlessly detonating in the air.

The Zoid extended its wings and roared, a fierce screech that seemed to fill the air. The Darkhorn stopped, almost as if it itself was afraid to go on. Concentrating on the neural link, she forced it, willed it to go on. She could feel the Zoid in the back of her mind, the machine itself fighting her as if it didn't want to go on.

Opening her eyes and looking up, she could see the base of the core emerging from its shattered shielding, lifting into the sky. For the first time, she could see something that she had never known about it before. She realised the truth about the core's true nature.

It had four engines in its base. For massive drives, similar to those she'd seen on the ruins of the Sovetski Soyuz.

It was a space vessel.

Rose sat in her Blade Liger's cockpit, her knees huddled to her chest. All around her was darkness, the only source of illumination being the Liger's own cockpit instrumentation, and the green glow from the screen of the small computer she held in her hands.

She'd seen the footage of the core's theft. She'd seen the engines. She knew there was one person who could answer her questions.

"Tell me, Slaughter" she began, her voice lacking any of its usual charm, instead having an icy cold edge. "Tell me about the core. Tell me the truth."

As soon as the Gilvader had left, the rest of the attacking Zoids had departed. They were clearly here only for as long as whoever was controlling the whole mess needed to steal the core. Sandra wondered what they intended to do with the pilots still stuck inside them. She figured there would be a lot of very stained cockpits at the other end.

Everyone had begun scouring the city for survivors. It wasn't clear as yet how many of Shepard's men had survived, but it appeared that almost his entire Zoid force had been wiped out. Certainly so far they hadn't been able to find any functional Zoids.

Personally, Sandra was hoping that she fond Shepherd before anyone else. He was the one who had gotten them into this whole mess in he first place. She was hoping she could have a few quiet words and re-arrange his features a little over that. Damn it, I had such a good day too, she thought. Best birthday I'd had in ages and he had to go and ruin it.

The truth was that she didn't want to think about how Sel and the others were doing. They'd just seen their whole world ripped apart around them. She suspected that Sel had volunteered her men for Search-and-rescue duty immediately, if only to give them something to think about.

"Blackmore? Is that you?" She could hear Shepherd's voice over the PA system. Turning around, she could see his Greatsaber perched on top of a pile of rubble.

Right, this is it, she thought. Time to give him what's coming to him. "Yes, what do you want now, you pompous tool?" she snapped back.

"It's Hagen." he replied, indifferent to her tone. "Something's happened to her."


	50. Peace Hotel

Novo Zemalya

Dark Continent

1930 Hours

The search and rescue operations were still ongoing, but it wasn't looking good. So far, not a single Zoid from Shepherd's force, save for his and Taro's own machines, had been found operational. And while they were pulling a lot of the pilots out, most of their Zoids were write-offs. Some could be salvaged, but it would take a lot of time and work. They'd found Vic's Gunsniper near the core's shielding, lying on its side. Vic was curled up into a ball inside the cockpit, babbling incoherently to herself. They'd evacuated her to the Hovercargo's medical bay and recovered the Zoid. Physically, she appeared to be fine. Mentally was another matter.

"I've seen her like this before." Shepherd muttered.

"You have?" Sandra snarled. She was somewhat worried over Vic's state, but was trying her best not to show it. It wasn't working.

He nodded. "Years ago, when Hagen was a member of my unit. Her squad were all wiped out by an unknown attacker while on an op in the Dark Continent. She was the only survivor. We found her like this."

"And you think it was the Gilvader, right?" She asked, angrily. "She had been saying things about seeing it before, or something. It's hard to tell with her."

He nodded. "I think so." He turned towards her. "Tell me, you've been here before. I saw your Liger and Wolf in the city when I was last here."

"Yes, we were, you big tool." She snapped. "What's your point?"

"I need to know something." He replied. "What happened to commander Desmond, captain Hallis and Amelia Snow?"

"Who?" She asked.

"Three high-ranking agents of ours who were leading the last attempt to infiltrate this city." He explained.

"Ah." She replied. "Well, one of them was found dead from a gunshot to the head. Another tool was found with a scalpel stuck in his throat. I have no idea which is which." She shrugged. "As for Amelia, well, I captured her myself. No idea what they did with her after that."

"I see." He finished. "And Hagen's the only one who can explain how."

"Yeah, well right now I wouldn't ask too much of her." She snapped. "In fact, you should be pretty damned grateful that we helped you out at all, given that you abducted us." She was building up momentum here, and didn't want to stop. "I mean, you storm into our house, menace us with guns and gas, drag us off to your ship, grab our Zoids, stuff us in a cell and take us on the magical mystery tour." She shouted. "Consider yourself lucky that I don't just haul off and blow your frelling head off right here!"

There was a long pause. "Thank you for your help." He replied, then turned to leave.

Sandra glared at him angrily. Stupid tool, she thought. There's got to be some sort of reward for handing in a top A-X commander. Its just that right now we can't get anywhere to do it.

"Hey." Rick interrupted her train of thought. "How are you doing?"

"Pretty bad." She replied. "Vic's... Vic's in shock or something like that. I think she'd seen the Gilvader before, and it may have traumatised her then and seeing it again was just too much for her." She burbled out. "Damn, none of this is making any sense."

Rick nodded. "Yeah, I understand. I don't think that any of us expected to see a legendary Zoid come out of nowhere and tear up the landscape like that."

She couldn't help but snigger at that point. Rick had a way with words. "Probably not." She replied. She'd heard the legends of the Gilvader, about how it was insanely powerful and capable of immense destruction. They seemed to be worryingly true.

"Hey, Sandra." Rick continued. "If the Gilvader's real, what about the Trin-"

"No." She replied. "Rick, do not even finish that thought."

"But the Gilvader's real." he said. "And we've seen a Thunder Trictops."

"That was Darthed." She replied. "It doesn't count."

"And there was a small article in that Zoid magazine on the Venom Snake." Rick said. "And nobody thought it was real either."

"Yes, there's a Venom Snake." She said.

"And Red Ultrasaurus." He continued. "They've found it in the wild."

"Okay, and Red Ultrasarus." She muttered. "And a Gilvader."

"No then there must be a-"

"No," She cut him off. "We are not having this conversation."

"But-"

"No!" She shouted. "End of argument." he stormed outside, almost sniggering to herself. It was kind of enjoyable in a way, and right now she could do with a good laugh. She just wished that Rick would give it a rest. But then, belief and stupidity combined were a powerful force.

"Lights."

There was a flickering and a humming noise, then silence. Then, much to everyone's surprise, the emergency lights came on. Looking around, Cade could see parts of the command centre illuminated, the rest of it trailing off to inky blackness. Several monitors and displays were also coming up. They could operate, but at minimal capacity.

"So what's the situation?" She asked.

"It's hard to tell." One of her aides replied as they looked up form their now-working terminal. "The sensors are reporting that the core's, well, gone."

"Gone?" She asked. "What exactly do you mean?"

"It's hard to tell since most of the sensors are either un-powered or destroyed, but it seems that the core is, well, missing." He replied. "Its like they took it."

"I see." Cade replied. "What's happening in the city itself?"

"Power's going to some essential services." A tech replied. "Mostly environmental control. We'll have fresh air and water, but heat and light are going to be very patchy. Beyond that, everything's out."

Cade nodded. "And the upper city?"

"We're not getting any data from that whatsoever." The tech replied. "So we have no idea what's going on up there."

And that monster could still be present, she thought. And whatever took control of our Zoids. Which means that things could still get far, far worse. "Keep the city sealed." She replied. "For the moment, nothing gets into or out of the lower city. We've already lost half the city; I have no intention of loosing the other half."

"But Colonel, isn't your-" one of her aides began, but she cut him off.

"I know that." She replied. "But right now we cannot afford to take any risks. We must protect what we have left"

Besides the maze of tunnels between levels, there were other, far more direct access routes between the upper and lower cities. Most of them were stairwells, their entrances concealed within low-rise concrete bunkers. They were designed to allow personnel easy access to the lower city, while still keeping enemies out.

Matt emerged from the entrance of one of them, shaking his head. "No luck." He began. "This one is sealed tight as well."

Sel nodded. So far every entrance they'd tried to access had been sealed shut from the other side. Short of blowing them open from this side, there was no conceivable way for them to get into the lower city now. And certainly there was no easy way for them to get their Zoids down, what with all the access elevators begin both powered down and sealed shut. "I expected as much." She replied. "As soon as command knew that... creature was capable of taking control of our Zoids, they would have locked the place down." She looked around. "Unfortunately, this means that for the moment. we're locked out."

Matt nodded. "Right now, things must be pretty terrible down there." He began. "With no power, there will be no lights, no heat, no food and water. There will be thousands of very scared people cooped up in a dark cave with no way out. Something's going to give soon."

"Definitely." Sel replied. "We're indoctrinated to believe that everything will work out fine if we give our all to the system. It works, just as long as there's no sudden, dramatic changes. Deprived of essential needs, the people are going to go crazy down there." She glanced back at the sealed bunker. "Ironically, our siege mentality has turned against us. A normal city could have survived something like this far better then we have."

"A lot of it is lack of preparation." Matt replied. "But then, I doubt that anyone could have prepared for something like this." They turned and walked back to their Zoids. "The question is, what is that is the Gilvader, or whoever's controlling it, doing with the core?"

Sel considered this. "We know it's a power source, a potentially unlimited one." She began. "And it's also some sort of space-going vessel. As for who's controlling the Gilvader, I personally suspect that it's Major De Lyon." Her commanding officer. Unfortunately, it made sense. He had access to the Quentin Journal which gave him far more information on the city and its innermost secrets then most people would have. And she'd seen the troops under his command remove the Nanofoge form that deep storage facility.

"The nanoforge." She began. "He's got a nanoforge, a space ship and an unlimited power source."

"We have to tell the others." Matt replied. "Now."

She nodded. The pair of them literally sprinted to their Zoids, vaulting thair way into the cockpits. Wirhin minutes, they had arrived back at what was being referred to as the base camp, the site of the downed Whale King and Hovercargo. No sooner were they there then Sel had leaped out, hitting the ground running. She quickly found Sandra and Anna, the pair of them apparently planning to leave.

"I need to speak to everyone, urgently." She began, breathlessly. "This is incredibly important."

Anna turned to face her, an angry look on her face. Sel had only properly met the woman a little earlier, but she didn't realise how big she really was. While she had a few centimetres on both her and Sandra, she was a lot broader and more heavily muscled. "Excuse me?" She began. "We were busy here. We're planning for how we're going to get out of here."

"No, let her speak." Sandra replied. "Sel is a native here. She may have a better idea of what's going on."

Sel nodded, and then briefly explained the background to major De Lyon and the nanoforge. "And with it," she added, "He could do, well, anything, really."

"De Lyon?" Sandra asked. "Shepherd, the lead tool on that A-X ship said a guy called De Lyon had invited their forces here, apparently for some sort of alliance."

Sel shook her head. "He's been 'on assignment' for several weeks; we think he had managed to hide himself while doing... whatever it is he has been doing."

"Great. Frelling brilliant. Tool." Sandra replied. "Well, this basically screams 'end of the world' situation." She threw her hands into the air. "I'm stuffed. Anyone want a beer?"

"Can't we do anything about him?" Anna asked.

"He's got the frelling Gilvader, a stupidly powerful legendary Zoid!" Sandra snapped. "See that?" She pointed at the huge tear in the side of the Whale King. "The Gilvader did that. See those?" She pointed over to the gap where the doors used to be. "The Gilvader did that as well. We try to stop it and we'll end up as so much shredded landfill."

Both Anna and Sel remained quiet for a moment before Sel finally spoke. "You think I don't know that, Sandra?" She asked. "That thing just all but destroyed my home. I have no idea what exactly he's doing, but I know that I have to stop it." She glared at Sandra. "If not for my sake, then for everyone else's."

She turned away and walked back to her Darkhorn. "Fine then." Sandra replied. "Go. If you're lucky, it'll just take control of your Zoid. I guess that way it's not going to try and destroy you or anything." She decided to ignore Sandra's comments for the moment, walking around to the other side of the Whale King before leaning on its hull.

That went well, she thought to herself. She'd just managed to alienate Sandra, arguably her best friend. Good start, she thought. And I doubt I'm going to get any others on-side either.

"You okay there?" Matt asked, having stepped around from his Deadborder.

"Not really." She replied. "I'm trying, at least. It's just... it's an awful lot to take in at once. I'm trying to be positive and think that we'll all get through this. Of course, I don't know how and I certainly don't have a plan and I have no idea how to stop that thing and..." she sighed.

"We'll manage." He replied. "Somehow, we seem to get through the worst things."

She nodded. "Like when we stuck our Zoids outside the ship to fight off those red mutants?" She asked. "That was one of my crazier plans, I'll admit."

"Or when you and Sandra fixed that fight." He replied.

She remembered that. It was one of the few times the pair of them had almost come to blows. "Yeah, I remember." She said. "I know we'll figure out something."

"Excuse me." She was snapped out of her train of thoughts by someone nearby. Looking around, she saw a pale skinned man in dark robes, who seemed oddly familiar. She couldn't think why. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I thought I heard you talking about a nanoforge earlier."

Sel blinked. "And you are?"

"You probably don't recall me." He replied. "But I am Darth Pants, Rick's arch enemy."

That's where he's from, she realised. He was the one who interrupted their baseball game back in Bed Springs. I suppose that right now he's an ally of sorts. "Yes, of course. Sorry. What's up?"

"You mentioned something about someone having a Nanoforge." He continued. "I'm assuming by that you meant some sort of nanotech assembler or the like."

She nodded. "Yes. The man controlling the Gilvader has it."

"Hmm..." He thought. "And you say the Gilvader was taking control of the other Zoids."

Sel nodded. "I've heard something about it spraying something form a weapon on its back. Any Zoid hit by the spray stops responding to the pilot, apparently."

"Ah." He began. "I have heard of something like this. It's probably some sort of nanotech induced control override. The Nanites are being used to route control of their Zoids from the pilot and probably to an AI system created within the Zoid. His system is then programmed to respond to commands from an external source. Fascinating." He rambled.

"Did you catch any of that?" Matt asked,

"Some." She replied. "Enough to have a good idea of what he's talking about."

"Pants, could you develop a way of countering this system?" She asked.

"Certainly" He replied. "I suspect that if I could analyse some of the nanites from one of the Zoids they had controlled then I could develop a sort of counter unit that could be installed into a Zoid. If the Zoid was infected with nanites, then the counter system would activate and flush a supply of friendly nanites into the Zoid's system. Yes, of course!"

"Like getting a shot to fight an infection." Matt said. "Brilliant."

"I am a genius you know." Pans said, rather confidently.

"So, when could you begin working on such a system?" Sel asked.

Pants rubbed his chin for a moment. "Well, if I could get one of the nanite-infected Zoids, or at least its wreckage, then almost immediately." He looked around. "My hovercargo has labs and equipment that I could use to modify the nanites programming and the hardware components of such a system wouldn't be too hard to scratchbuild.."

"Shepherd has been collecting the wrecked Zoids in the Whale King. Explain to him what you're doing and I'm sure he'll let you take a few for study. Is there anything else you need?"

Pants looked around. "No, I feel that what I have at the moment is perfect. I can beat this weapon, beat it with my own genius!" He laughed out loud for a moment, then stopped. "So, if you'll excuse me." He turned around and began to walk off, only to trip on his own cloak and fall on his face. picking himself up again, he dusted himself off then continued walking.

"Do you really think he can help?" Matt asked.

"Right now I'll take anything." Sel replied. "And, strangely enough, I think this may be our best chance yet."

Given the situation, there had been precious little time for introductions while everyone had been hip-deep in A-X Zoids and the Gilvader had been breathing down their throats. Now that the pressure was off, at least for the moment, Rick had decided that it was time that everyone got to know each other a little beyond "don't shoot him."

So as a result, she'd gotten Bekka, Alex and Bob together and introduced them to Felix, Stuart, Reven and Z-One. Things weren't quite going as he'd expected, however.

"So..." Reven began, slightly apprehensively. "You guys pilot Dark Zoids."

"Yep." Alex replied. "As if it wasn't obvious form the big black and green lizards over there." He added.

"That's... nice." She added, glancing at Z-One for some reason.

"Wonder if they're the same bunch of DZ's." he replied. "You know, like those ones in the Whale Ki-" Reven clamped her hand over his bandanna-covered face, reducing him to a series of incoherent mumbles.

"He's just a witless minion." Reven quickly blurted out, grinning nervously. "Don't pay any attention to a thing he says."

Bob looked at Alex in confusion, who just shrugged. "So how do all you guys know each other?" Bekka asked.

"It's complicated." Felix replied. "Bed Springs was invaded by the military. We fought back." He spat on the ground nearby. "Sandra kinda organised our forces."

"Yeah!" Stuart shouted. "I mean, we charged around and attacked those guys and hit 'em and... BANG! Yeah! That was cool!" He laughed to illustrate his point. "And now we got all these guys here, and then we can just plow though them all and stuff! Cool!"

"He's funny." Bekka said, sniggering. Alex and Bob refused to comment.

"Anna's our boss of sorts now." Felix continued. "It was her idea to follow the Whale King that kidnapped Sandra, Rick and Vic. So she grabbed that Pants guy and forced him to drive us all this way"

"Wow." Rick replied. "I'm surprised Reven agreed to the idea."

"Anna shouted at her a lot, which helped things." Felix replied. Rick nodded sagely. She was good at that. "Somehow we made it all here without killing each other"

"...and then we charged straight in squished a few of 'em then I leapt out of the cargo in my DB and let rip with a full cannon barrage! Bang! Bang bang bang!" Stuart added, as if to illustrate the point.

"How did you manage?" Alex asked, quietly.

"It wasn't easy." Felix replied. "I think Anna did a lot by simply shouting at everyone to maintain order and threatening violence. Worked too."

"So what are you going to do now?" Bob asked. "You're an awful long way from home."

Felix shrugged. "We'll figure out something. I suspect we'll probably end up going back the way we came. Might be a bit of a problem to carry three more Zoids, but we'll manage."

"I take it you don't want to take those two A-X clowns with you?" Alex asked, indicating to the Whale King.

"We could take 'em as prisoners. They're probably worth quite a bit in bounty." He explained. "We can't fit their Zoids though."

"We're not going anywhere for the moment." Anna interrupted them, Sandra standing behind her.

"Boss?" Felix asked.

"Whadda ya mean we're not?" Stuart added, shouting. "Why?"

"Because that big, black tooly Zoid has a spaceship and a nanomachine assembler." Sandra replied. "Combine the two, and whoever is controlling it can do to the whole world what they did to the A-X force."

There was a long, long pause before everyone spoke. "Wow." Rick finally spoke up. "A genuine end of the world scenario. I take it we can't do anything to stop it?"

"Not unless you can come up with some way to destroy the GIlvader without it grinding you up into kibble and then laying carpet on your mortal remains." Sandra replied. "That's assuming that it doesn't just seize control of your Zoid and let you sit around and watch while it takes over the world."

"Do we even know who's inside it?" Bob asked. "Anything?"

Sandra nodded. "Based on what Sel and Major Toolfairy have told us, we think it's one of your seniors, a man called De Lyon. He was responsible for looking after Rick and I when we were your guests last."

"I shoulda figured." Alex said.

"What do you mean by that?" Bob asked. "If you have issues with your commander-" he stood, an angry look on his face.

"Whaoh, easy there, Bob." Alex replied, holding up his hands. "But sure you would have noticed how much of a pain he's been since the last attack on the city. Story I heard was that Captain O'Bannon undercut him all the way and made him look bad in front of everyone, Colonel Cade included."

"O'Bannon?" Rick asked. "As in, Rose O'Bannon? As in..." he gestured with his hands.

Alex nodded. "That's the one. Technically she's Sel's equal and De Lyon's subordinate. In practice, she's managed to gain a lot more power then she should have."

"How do you know all this?" Bob asked.

"Pays to make friends with people." He replied.

"Anyway, that tool has the core and a nanite assembler and can pretty much boglflop the world with the resulting mess." Sandra replied. "I, uh, can't really offer you much right now, but the best thing I can say is that if there's anything you want to do or say, you better do it now."

"Right." Felix stood and spat. "Well if you'll excuse me, I have to see a man about some things." He walked off.

"Oh great." Reven muttered, finally releasing her grip on Z-One's mask. "Here I am going to die in a hole in the ground in the middle of nowhere. Wonderful. It wasn't how I'd planned to go out." She cast an eye over the various other pilots. "Either of you doing anything tonight?" She looked over at Bob and Alex.

Bob shrugged. Alex simply shook his head. "Later. I've got to make peace with my inner child. Or something."

"Fine." She stalked off, clearly not happy about something. Z-One shrugged and stood there, clearly not caring much for what was going on.

Bekka turned to look at Rick, then stood up and walked over to him. "Rick, uh..." She trailed off. "There's something, something I've been meaning to tell you."

"Something up?" he asked.

"Can we, uh, go somewhere else?" She asked. "I just want to talk and stuff but in private."

Rick nodded. "Sure thing." The pair of them walked off, heading away form the hovercargo and everyone else.

Sandra and Anna walked off, as did Stuart. After a while of standing there and doing nothing, Z-One simply wandered off, probably looking for someone to minion for. Bob and Alex were left, looking over the ruined city and the two transports.

Alex lay back on the concrete slab that had been serving as an impromptu bench, staring up at the roof. "Stars." He began. "I can see stars from here. There's something I never thought I'd ever live to see happen."

Bob grunted. "Pity they had to take the roof off for it."

Alex nodded. "Shame that. Still, you can't argue with the view. I wonder, which one of them do you think is our real home?"

Bob merely grunted again.

"Something up, bro?" Alex asked, still looking up into space.

"Lots of things, I guess." Bob replied. "Its just that they hall happened at once."

"Let me guess, it's Bekka, right?"

"Yeah." He said. "I mean, I know she's her own woman now and all that but... I guess I just can't get over seeing her as my baby sister or something."

"Our baby sister." Alex muttered. "Yeah, I know what you mean." The three of them were all the same age in years, but the pair of them had always towered over Bekka.

"I guess I'm just a bit concerned." He continued. "I mean... It's not that I don't like Rick or anything it's just that, well, he's an outsider."

Alex nodded. He, Bob and Bekka were all genetically-enhanced supersoldiers who had been trained their whole lives for fighting. All three of them were the children of other genetically upgraded individuals. As a comic book artist/writer turned mercenary, Rick was about as different from them as possible. "I know, man." He said. "But them I figure, she's happy. And that what's really important."

"Probably." He said.

"Evening." Darth pants walked past carrying a mess of pipes on his back. "You guys wouldn't know where I could get a vacuum cleaner around here?"

"Sorry." Alex replied. "We don't come here often."

"Not a problem." He replied, and walked off.

"Now there's a guy with problems." Alex said as soon as he was out of earshot.

"Yeah." he said. "Outsiders."

"I know." Alex replied. "But at the same time, we've met an awful lot of nice ones. And hell, most of 'em have been a lot more human then people I know around here."

"You think?"

"I know." He replied. "I'd rate Rick above a lot of people I know any day."

"That's fair then." Bob finished. "I guess I'm just over protective or something."

"Naw, you're okay. You just try to follow the rules, that's all." Alex replied. "Ah hell, I gotta say this. You're an alright guy, you know that? Despite the way we treat you sometimes."

"Thanks." There was a long pause. "I just figured you guys were just all being pains."

"We're like that' Alex replied. "We just pick on you because you adhere to the rules all the time, unlike us loons."

He shrugged. "Thanks, I think."

"Seriously. You've shown incredibly bravery and skill, and you've stuck your neck out more then any of us would have dared. Like when you continued fighting despite your Zoid's condition when we were attacked by those red mutants." He explained. "And you did better then Bekka. Statistically, she's meant to be the best of us three screaming mad iguanas."

"Really?" Bob asked. "Thanks for that."

There was a long, long pause with neither of them speaking. "What do you suppose will happen now?" Bob finally asked. "I mean, with the core and the city and all."

"I have no idea." Alex replied. "I'm sure Sel will figure something out. She always seems to."

"You reckon?"

Before Alex could reply, there was a high-pitched female squeal from the Hovercargo. "What was that?" Bob asked, leaping to his feet.

"That?" Alex asked. "Probably that Reven girl discovering that Pants has done something that's sapped all the hot water in the Hovercargo." Alex replied. "But I'm hazarding a guess."

"How do you know that?"

"I've heard Bekka make similar noises." He explained "Back when we were... ah..."

Bob nodded. "I always knew about you two." He replied. "You don't have to say anything."

"Thanks." he replied. "I, uh, didn't want to bring it up but-"

"It's okay." Bob replied.

"Yeah." Alex sat up. "I should probably go check on Reven, to see if she's uh, all right. Or something."

Bob smiled. "You had better. She might be in trouble and need your help. Or something."

Alex laughed, then slapped him on the back. "Good call." He stood up and walked off. "See ya later."

Bekka had taken Rick to an old house closer towards the city's hub. It was one of the more intact buildings in the area, even if it had been stripped bare of most of its furnishings long ago. She'd also picked up a backpack that she'd stashed near where they were meeting. She hadn't said why. Putting it down on the floor of what had probably once been a main bedroom, she turned to him.

"I missed you a lot." She began, looking down at her feet.

"Me too." Rick replied, looking at her. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has." She answered, glancing away from him, before looking back at him. "It's good to see you again, Rick."

"It's great to see you too." He replied. "I just wish that it had been under different circumstances."

"Yeah." She replied. "Like you not being kidnapped and us not having our city torn apart."

"Something like that." He nodded. "Uh, Bekka, there's, uh, something I've been wanting to say for a while. It's just that... well... every time I try to say it, something bad happens."

"I know." She said, nodding. "The same seems to happen to me. Last time, it was the attack on Lanard, remember?"

Rick nodded. "Yeah. Strange the way these things work out, isn't it?"

She nodded. Both of them seemed to have the same thing to say, Rick thought. Its just that neither of them could say it.

"Bekka-"

"Rick-"

They both began at once, then stopped, stumbling over their words. "You go." Rick finally offered.

"That night in Bed Springs." She finally said. "When we, uh, started out with the sketchbook session and we went beyond that and... I mean... well..."

"I think I understand." Rick replied.

"You do?"

He nodded, then leaned forwards and kissed her on the forehead. "Yeah, I think so." He smiled. "You're in love with me, right."

She nodded. "It seems kind of silly. I'm normally so fearless and reckless in battle, but I can't bring myself to say something like that."

"It's okay." Rick replied. "I know how you feel. I, uh, I feel the same, really. I'm normally so confident and now well..."

She kissed him, this time on the lips. Taking her in his arms, he just held her there for a long time.

"Rick, I'm so scared." She finally admitted. "I don't know what's going to happen to us."

"It'll all work out." He replied. "I know it will."

Rose didn't know how long she'd been sitting in the Liger's cockpit, simply listening to Slaughter talking. It was surprising how much he still had to say to her, given how much she'd wrung out of him in past. So far, he seemed to be giving her his life story, which in and of itself seemed to be a somewhat epic story of battles against various foes.

"After the end of the Z-Knight wars, I found others like me." He continued. "We wanted to rule this world, and then extend out reach beyond that. We felt that with our capabilities and technology, we shouldn't be confined to the dried-up husk this planet had become. Those like me were called the Destructors. Our ranks swelled, and included many of our race's most powerful warriors."

"And so you built this place." Rose replied.

"Yes." He explained. "The core was to be the heart of our interstellar vessel that would take our race to the stars. The city would function both as a development facility for the weapons I would use to conquer my fellow Starriors, as well as a launch facility for this vessel."

"I see." Rose replied. Ironically, they had the means to go home under their noses all along. They just didn't know it. But then, she wondered, if they had known, would they have used it? Would they have given up their power in order to get home? She dismissed the thought as irrelevant. She had other things to think about. "What is the core capable of?"

"Right now, very little." he replied. "The engines that it's got at the moment are for space manoeuvring only. They won't allow it to break the planet's gravity without assistance."

"And if it were to be mated to an existing drive system to allow it to reach orbit?"

"Hypothetically, the possibilities are unlimited." He replied. "My first plan was to turn it into a power module for an orbital weapons platform capable of devastating the planet's surface."

"And if it was equipped with some sort of nanotech weapon?" She asked, slowly putting together the pieces.

"Given its power capacity, it could power and produce a moderately effective nanotech assembler almost indefinitely." He replied. "It was another option I had considered."

Now it all made sense. "I see." She said. "And the Gilvader?"

"A Zoid I created to use against the Starriors and other races." He replied. "I modelled its AI systems off my own. As Zoids go, it is very intelligent and dangerous, almost driven to destroy."

"So, the question is, how would one stop it?"

"You can't." He simply replied.

The weight of the core, as well as the drag of carrying it suspected under a quartet of ships had substantially slowed De Lyon's trip from the city to his new base of operations. It didn't really matter to him, however. He knew that by this stage there was nothing that anyone could do to stop him. From here, it was only a matter of time.

His attack on Novo Zemalya had not gone as planned. He'd been forced to down one of the A-X whale Kings and then use a substantial portion of the forces he now controlled to terminate the ship's occupants. Looking at the forces following him on the ground, it appeared that a good portion of them, probably half, had been destroyed in the fighting. Still, it had netted him all that he had wanted to get away with, and that was what mattered.

Arriving at the site, De Lyon could see that his advance forces were already present. His own Whale King was resting on the ground, the Zoids from the Special Operations Unit scattered around the area on sentry duty. Nearby, technicians swarmed over a massive chunk of wreckage, working to disassemble it. A field headquarters completed the site.

He'd chosen this location for two reasons. The first was that the wreckage of the Sovetski Soyuz provided him with more then just raw materials; its four massive interplanetary drives were still intact and functional. They were an essential part of his plan. The second was that nobody would come here. It was the last place anyone from Novo Zemalya would dare go. It had given him ample opportunity to prepare his work in private.

His troops had already prepared a detention facility for the remaining A-X pilots. He had no further use for them now that he had thair Zoids. From here, all they could do was watch as he launched his new vessel, and a new age for the whole planet began. He supposed that he could consider them privileged. Maybe he should charge admission.

The Gilvader landed, while the four ships put down the core. The impact of its landing kicked up a cloud of powdered snow, temporarily clouding it. No sooner was he down, then he was shouting orders. "Secure the core! Have it made ready for assembly of the orbital engines!"

Leaving the Gilvader, he was met by his aide, Major Sturm. "I trust all went well at the city?" He asked.

"After a fashion." De Lyon replied as he walked towards his field command center. "A-X put up more of a fight then expected and I ended up walking away with less then half of their ground forces. But I did get the Whale kings and, more importantly, the core, so we achieved our objectives. Besides, what's a few attack Zoids, given what's at stake?"

"Very little, I'd imagine." Sturm replied. "And the city itself?"

"The front doors have been destroyed and there's now a gaping hole in the roof." He explained. "Command decided to tighten up security and have basically sealed the place off. I figure it may be one of the last places we get to. Of course, by then everyone's likely to have gone crazy and the place may be one big riot. It could be amusing to see."

"Indeed, sir" Sturn continued.

"Oh, there's one other thing." He turned to face Sturm. "I captured a squadron of our Reddlers during the attack. I want you to find their leader and bring him to me."

"Yes sir." Sturm replied. "Oh, sir, you'll find a copy of the engineering report on your desk." He added before he turned and left.

Entering his field headquarters, itself little more then a tent, De Lyon picked up a small portable computer that he had been using to store all the info relevant to the project. Checking the current documents, he could see the engineers report that Sturm had mentioned. Excellent. It would take them some time to install the engines, but the design theory was sound. The four engines from the Zoyuz could be combined with the core to give it the lift it needed to reach orbit. Perfect.

"Excuse me, sir." Sturm interrupted his analysis of the reports. Looking up, De Lyon could see him by the entrance with another man in a Zemalyan uniform. Tall, dark haired and blue-eyed, De Lyon recognised him as captain Eisenbeck, one of Cade's best and most promising officers. His hands were bound behind his back, and a pair of large, well-armed troopers stood behind him.

"Ah, captain Eisenbeck." He began. "So good of you to join us."

"You traitor." He snarled back. "Do you realise what you've done? You've killed us all."

"What I've done, captain, is take control of my own life." He replied. "I will no longer be held prisoner by our system. Nor will I allow it to continue perpetuating itself, leaving our people imprisoned by false hopes."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Oh come on." he replied. "Do you really think we were ever going to leave this planet?" Esienbeck didn't reply. "I thought so."

"So what do you want with me?"

"I'm offering you a chance to join us." De Lyon replied. "As a fellow Zemalyan officer."

"You can go to hell." He spat back. "You're no better then those terrorists outside."

"Fine then." De Lyon casually replied. "Take him away. Return him to the detention centre for now."

A pair of solders dragged Eisenbeck away, leaving De Lyon and Sturm alone again in the office. "There was one other thing, sir." Sturm spoke up. "The leader of the A-X forces asked to speak to you. He called himself lord Ebonflak."

"I knew he'd come here himself." He replied. "Please, get him for me. I do wish to talk to him."

"Sir." Sturm replied and left.

Seating himself, De Lyon began to go over the engineering notes on the construction of the new engines for the ship. In the back of his mind, however, he could feel the Gilvader's presence. It seemed to be... hungry, It wanted more. More destruction, more power. It was a creature that apparently lived to destroy. He put it aside for the moment, concentrating on his work.

"Excuse me, sir." Looking up, he could see Sturm standing there with a tall, long-haired man. He immediately recognised him from the intel briefings as Ebonflak, the leader of A-X.

"Lord Xonvier Ebonflack, I presume." De Lyon began. "I am major Jean De Lyon. I apologise for the deception in bringing you here, but I had need of your troops."

"Indeed." Ebonflak replied. "And a magnificent deception it was. So grandiose in nature and yet so elegant in its execution. I applaud you on your efforts, Major. You knew exactly what to do in order to lure me in and set me up for whatever your plan is."

"You wanted to speak to me." De Lyon replied, ignoring the compliment.

"Indeed." He continued. "I have noticed that you now have complete control over our Zoids, effectively eliminating our access to them. Whatever method you used has effectively removed any influence we could have over their actions." He paused for a moment. "However, my Darth tells me that the Zoids themselves are not functioning at their full capacity. Under whatever form of remote control they use, their reactions are far slower and less capable then if they were controlled by human operators."

"Your point?"

"Major, I sense a kindred spirit in you." Ebonflak continued. "One who wishes to bring order and enlightenment to this corrupt, ignorant and disorderly world. For that is my goal as well, as the leader of the secret ideological organisation of A-X. Major, I would be honored if you would allow me to work alongside your forces. Grant myself, my Darth and my aide full control of our Zoids, and we will faithfully serve you."

De Lyon considered this. Besides the special operations unit, he had no Zoids capable of independent action. And having a few that were able to react a little faster would be useful. Besides, there were ways of ensuring their loyalty.

"Granted." he said. "But remember this. The nanites that control your Zoids are also present in your bodies. While they can't be used to take control of you, they can have other... detrimental effects. Betray me, and I won't hesitate to demonstrate them to you."

"My loyalty is assured." Ebonflak replied. "I merely wish to be a part of the glorious plan you have for these ignorant masses."

De Lyon nodded. "My men here will show you to temporary accommodations. While crude, I'm sure they'll be more to your liking then the detention facility."

"Thank you, Major." Ebonflak replied. "Together, I feel that we can truly bring an age of enlightenment and order to the ignorant masses of the world."

De Lyon nodded, a pair of guards escorting him out of the room. Sturm turned towards him as soon as they left. "You don't trust him, do you?"

"There's very little he can do to me, Sturm." De Lyon replied. "Should he try anything, I could have the nanites boil his blood or try to reconstruct his brain or something to that effect. And any control of his Zoid he has, I can just as easily take away again." He said. "A few more soldiers may yet be of some assistance to us."

"Yes sir." Sturm replied. "And the Darth?"

"The same applies to him." He replied. "Besides which, what kind of Darth goes around in a completely unmodified Zoid?" He'd been rather surprised about the information he'd gotten form the A-X Zoids. Ebonflak's Godkaiser was the only machine that deviated form a normal configuration. "If it bothers you, Sturm, assign extra guards to watch them. Fell free to kill them should they give you any grief."

"Yes sir." he replied and left.

De Lyon sat back in the chair. In his mind, he could hear the Gilvader's thoughts. It hungered he thought. Hungered for more destruction.

"Soon." he whispered to himself. "Very soon."

Rick stared up at the cracked ceiling of the abandoned house. Bekka's colourfully tattooed arm lay across his chest, her head resting on his shoulder. For about the dozenth time he tried counting the cracks in the ceiling to get to sleep. It wasn't working.

"Are you awake?" He heard her mutter next to him.

"Sorry." he replied quietly. "Couldn't sleep."

"Its okay." She replied.

"Too much to think about." He added. "What with the Gilvader and everything."

"Don't." he said. "Just let's... lets have what little time we have."

"I'm sorry." He sighed. "I keep trying to think of ways to stop it."

"Like?" She asked, propping her head up on her other arm.

He turned over to face her. "Its like a comic book thing. There's the huge supermenace that's bigger then any supermenace that the heroes have ever seen before. It's too tough for them to beat and they have to find a way to beat it up."

"And you write this sort of stuff for a living." She replied. "So what would you have them do?"

"Well..." Rick considered the matter. What would he do? "One thing is to go to your previous arch enemy and ask his help. Its strange, but they often will agree. And that's usually a good thing, because usually arch enemies are incredibly powerful. Most are supermenaces in and of themselves."

"So you use a super-tough baddie to stop another one." Bekka replied. "Sounds simple to me."

"Of course!" Rick suddenly sat up. "The Gilvader's a legendary beast of destruction, the sort of apocalyptic super monster that exits solely to blow stuff up." he spoke excitedly. "All we need is another one. Some other hugely powerful monster Zoid."

"Like the Bloody Deathsaurer?" Bekka asked. "I mean, that thing's hugely powerful. And you saw what it did on its own."

Rick remembered that thing all too well. He'd almost been on the receiving end of its attentions. "That's right!" He stood up. "If we can re-activate that thing, then we can use it against the Gilvader! It's perfect!" He was virtually shouting with excitement.

"It is?" She asked, sitting up and holding her sleeping bag to her chest.

"Of course!" he replied. "Its more powerful then any other Deathsaurer! You saw it in action. If it can destroy a Mad Thunder with its cannon, then it must be able to destroy the Gilvader!" He excitedly slammed his fist into his hand. "I've got to tell Sel or Sandra or someone. We can do this, Bekka! We can beat it! We can save the world!" He turned to lave.

"Uh, Rick?" he asked. "One thing."

"What?"

"You might want to put some clothes on first. Any clothes."

Following her argument with Sel, Sandra had retreated back to the Hovercargo's sick bay where they'd taken Vic. She was curled up into a small ball on one of the beds, muttering to herself. Sandra had tried talking to her, but to no response. She's completely withdrawn, she thought. She's already been traumatised once by that thing. Seeing it again must have been too much for her to handle. It was odd. In a way, she'd always figured Vic to be the toughest of the three of them simply because she was completely nuts. Now?

She'd remained by the bad, siting in a small chair and watching her in case she changed. At some stage, however, she must have drifted off to sleep. Next thing she knew, someone was shaking her.

"Hey, Sandra?" She recognised the voice. Rick. What was he doing here? "You there? I need to speak to you."

"Wha?" She said, blinking awake. Rick was standing there, Bekka lurking behind him in the doorway. "Rick? "

"We think we know how to beat the Gilvader." He began.

"What?" She shook her head. Now I know I'm nuts, she thought. Rick said he can beat that thing.

"We can beat it." he said again. "I have a plan."

"A plan?" She asked. "You?"

He nodded. "Well, it's half Bekka's plan, but its still a plan." He explained.

"What is it?" She asked. She knew that it was probably incredibly hair brained and stupid, but at the same time a part of her wanted to hope that he had some way to beat that creature.

"We use the Bloody Deathsaurer." He replied. "We hit it with something that can match its power."

She shook her head. "And what, you think they'll give it to us?"

"We're working on that." Rick replied. "But we think we may be able to steal it or something. After all, Vic was able to."

"And who's going to pilot it?" Sandra asked. "Sel said it violently rejects anyone who tries to use it. And the only person who was able to use it was Vic and she's no use to anyone right now."

"We have to try." Rick replied. "And this is the best chance we have."

"Fine." Sandra said. "It's a completely insane plan that is going to get you all killed." She stood, throwing her hands into the air for effect. "But at the same time, it's the sort of thing that we do all the time." She grinned. "So lets do it."

Stepping outside the Hovercargo, Sandra was surprised to find Darth Pants and his Malder waiting outside the bay, a pile of assorted tools and tubes lying around its base. One of the access panels at the base of its shell was open, with pants himself half sticking out of the panel. More surprisingly, Sel was standing nearby watching the process.

"What's going on here?" Sandra asked as she stepped outside.

"Pants is working on something." She replied. "Actually, it was my idea."

"It's something like ten or eleven at night. Isn't it a bit too late for Darthing?" She asked.

"Well, he says that there's never a bad time for genius, so here we are." She replied and shrugged.

"We need to tal-" Sandra began, but she was interrupted by Pants stepping out of the Zoid's access hatch.

"I'm all finished, Sel!" He shouted. "And we're ready for a test run."

"How's it looking?" She asked back.

"So far, so good." He flicked a switch on a small remote he was holding. A sound like a malfunctioning vacuum cleaner came form the Zoid, followed by clouds of dust billowing out form its shell. "See?"

Sel waved her hand to clear the air a little. "Great. Tell me when you begin the test."

"Hi Pants!" Rick shouted. "How's it going?"

"Great." he replied. "I should be ready for my vengeance in a while. I'm just working on my latest project now."

"Another ultimate creation?" Rick asked.

"No, just an upgrade to this one." He replied.

"Right... well, good luck with it." Rick said as pants walked off, whistling as he went.

"Sorry." Sel said. "You were saying?"

"Rick and Bekka have a plan to stop the Gilvader." She said. "It's completely nuts and will probably get us all killed, but I reckon we have a better chance of puling it off then sitting around here and doing nothing." She was trying to sound as casual as possible. Not easier when a few hours ago she'd basically told Sel that they were better off doing just that.

"Really?" She asked. "Because Pants and I were working on something of our own."

"You and Pants were working together?" Sandra asked. "Now that's completely tooled up."

"Actually, he's developing a system to counteract the nanites that the Gilvader is using to control Zoids." She explained. "He thinks that he may be able to develop a system of his own that will neutralise their attack."

"So that means its lost one of its weapons if it works." Sandra said. "Pretty frelling brilliant of the big tool, actually."

"See, I told you he was a cool arch-enemy." Rick added.

"So what was your plan?" Sel asked.

"Well, we figured that the Gilvader was pretty much the biggest and scariest thing we've come across." Rick began. "And we also figured that the Bloody Deathsaurer was similarly huge and terrifying. So our plan is to use the latter against the former."

Sel glared at him. "You do realise that we'd need Vic to pilot it, and she's in no state to do it."

"I'm well aware of that." Rick replied. "I think we can bring her around."

"And you also realise that we'd need to get it out of the city. It weighs four hundred tons, and the cargo lifts won't be functioning. Any ideas on how you're going to do that?"

"Whale king." He said. "If four of them can lift the core, I'm sure one can lift a Deathsaurer. Besides, it'd be an easier way to get around then walking it to wherever he is."

"Fine." She said. "One last thing. You do realise that when she last used it, Vic went nuts and tried to destroy everything around her. How do we know she won't do that again?"

"I figured we'd burn that bridge when we got to it." Rick replied.

"Cross." She said. "The term is to 'cross' that bridge when you come to it."

"Whatever." Rick finished, shrugging. "So what do you think?"

"I'm assuming that the rest of us go in there and act as support elements to stop the enemy from swarming it." Sel began. "And with Pants' new system, that would work too..." She considered it. "Well, I'm all for it."

Sandra smiled. That, she thought, was spoken like one of us. "Right." She spoke. "What we need to do is get everyone in on this. Somebody go and find Shepherd and tell him. We'll need all the warm bodies we can get, and he's also got the authority to boss around the Whale King's crew."

Sel nodded. 'I'll look after him." She said. "I'm sure I can talk to him as one officer to another."

"We'll spread the world around with everyone else." Bekka spoke up. "They should be on our side."

Sandra figured it out in her head. Stuart would be in it for the Explosions, Anna to keep Stuart under control... Reven could be a problem, but she figured they could get her on side some how. "Right." She answered. "And I'm going to try and nut out stealing the stupid thing." She finished.

The pair of them walked off, leaving Sandra staring at the gutted Whale King. It could still fly, she figured. Just not easily. Pants wandered back into view, dragging a mass of tubing with him. "Hey pants!" She shouted.

"What is it?" he asked, turning around and almost dropping his load of assorted parts.

"Could you repair the Whale King's engines?"

He looked over at the damaged ship. "Quite possibly." He replied. "I could transplant and adapt parts from the Hovercargo... it could work."

"Do it." She said. "We have a plan."

A quick review of his surviving men had given Shepard a good idea of the situation. He had enough surviving pilots who were fit for combat to take all the Zoids left operational after the battle. From there, he figured he could take the Darth prisoner and force him to repair the Whale King's engines, using the others as hostages if necessary. Re-armed and with a functional ship, his force could evacuate the city.

He'd decided to go for a short walk around the ship while planning their next move. From here, it seemed like there was very little they could do. He'd considered attacking the enemy force head-on to liberate Ebonflak and the others, but quickly dismissed that. Blackmore's points were accurate; they had no way to stop the Gilvader, and no way to prevent it from seizing control of their Zoids.

"I want a word with you." A voice from behind caught his attention. He turned around to see Felix Stratton, one of the mercenaries working with that Conda woman, standing by a pile of rubble. His arms were folded across his chest, an angry look on his face.

"What do you want." He demanded. He didn't have time to waste on this mercenary scum.

"You don't remember me, do you?" He snarled. "Three years ago at the Georges River. Do you remember that?"

Shepherd nodded. There had been a clash between A-X forces and UZN troops there, in which he had been involved. The battle had been a rather one-sided rout, most of the A-X force wiped out with only Shepherd and a handful of others escaping. "So what of it?"

"I was-" he began, but was cut off.

"Major Shepherd!" He turned to see Magyari standing on his other side, her second in command looming behind her. "We need to speak. Now."

First one thing and then another. "I'm busy right now." He replied. First I'll deal with this fool and then her, he thought. Damn, this whole operation has been an unmitigated disaster. I'd bee very surprised if there is an A-X after all this.

"It's important." She said, speaking up. "We know how to beat the Gilvader. But we need your help."

He turned around, leaving Stratton behind. "No." He replied. "I am leaving, and I am taking my men with me. We are not going to fight your hopeless battles."

She walked forwards, the large man remaining close to her. "Major, this is the fate of the world we're talking about here." She explained. "If we don't stop it, then we're all done for."

"Irrelevant." He said. "I am taking my troops and my ship and leaving this city."

"And going where?" She asked, an angry look on her face. For the first time he noticed the smeared red streaks down her cheeks. Warpaint, he thought. How anachronistic. "If we don't stop that thing, there will be nowhere to go to."

"I don't care." He replied. "I have plans. I can survive this. But not if I fight it head-on."

"So-sha!" He turned for am moment to see Taro standing behind Felix, a gun in his hands. "What is going on here?"

"I'm dealing with important matters, Watanabe." He snapped. "The situation is in hand." He turned back to Magyari. "I am not going along with this foolish venture. If you want to fight it, do it yourselves."

"What?" She snapped. "Don't you care what happens to everyone else?"

"Frankly, no." He replied, turning away. "I joined this organisation for power and to further my own career I see little opportunity for either while engaging in some foolish attack on-"

Before he could finish, he heard someone behind him moving. Turning around, he caught a glimpse of Magyari, right before her fist impacted into the side of his face. He staggered back, clutching the side of his face. "What..." He began.

"You attack my city." She began, snarling as she threw her jacket aside, revealing a short-sleeved black skive underneath. "You kill my people." She stepped forwards, sweeping her long hair over her shoulder and gathering it into a ponytail. "You kidnap my friends." She finished, glaring at him. "You cooperate with me and I may just let you go free at the end of all this."

He glanced around. Stratton was standing behind Taro, pressing his subordinate's face into the side of the Whale King's hull. Magyari's man was standing some distance back, a large pistol in his hand. He'd been outmanoeuvred. Only one option left. "No." He replied. "You will let me go with my men. Now."

Magyari's reply was to lash out with a high kick aimed towards his head. Stepping backwards, he barely avoided it then ducked, running straight at her. Swinging at her face, he was surprised when she caught the blow and twisted his arm around. She's fast, he thought. And strong too. Much stronger then I would have thought. Striking her arm with his free hand, he wrenched himself free then staggered back. Enough of this.

He jabbed at her, only to have her duck to the right, then weave to the left to avoid his follow up. In reply, she struck out with her foot, catching him in the side. Seeing a chance, however, he staggered then swept low with his own foot, catching her in the calf and monetarily tripping her. Leaping at her, she rolled out of the way and sprang to her feet before he could strike.

She struck hard, the first blow landing in his midsection and staggering. The second one seemed to go straight for is kidneys, leaving him doubled over in pain. He twisted around, expecting a third blow and preparing to counter it.

Instead, she bought around her left foot, the boot striking him in the side of the face. There was a wet crunching noise as he staggered and then collapsed, a stream of blood spurting form his nose. Before he could get up, Magyari leaped on him, Her thighs straddling her chest while one hand clamped down on his neck. The other was raised above his head, clenched in a tight fist.

"Go on." He muttered. "You're not a killer."

Then he saw her eyes. A deep, dark brown, bordering on black that matched her hair. Even against them, the pupils were normally visible, but now they were small, barely viable. He'd seen this look before, he realised. Hagen. She'd had this look while she was talking about Desmond and what happened to him.

"Am I?" She asked. "Well?"

"Fine." he rolled his head to one side. "I concede. You can have my men and my ship."

"And you." She said. "You pilot the Greatsaber. I've seen you fight. You're good. We need you and your aide."

"Fine. Both of us then."

She narrowed her eyes, then lowered her fist. Shaking her head, she released him and stood. Shaking his head, he felt around his throat. Sore, he thought. That woman had an iron grip. What was with her? He looked over at the dark-haired man behind her. Were they all like this? He'd seen the rest of her squadron. Fighting the large, heavily muscled man would be impossible. It would be like tacking a Zoid, bare-handed.

"You fight well." He said as he stood. "Very well. I will help you. But after that, we are all allowed to go free, regardless of what happens."

She nodded. "Agreed." Turning, she picked up her jacket. "But on one condition. You never, ever come back here again."

"Nothing would make me happier." He replied as he looked around. "Nothing."

Sel had waited until Shepherd, Watanabe and Stratton had left before saying anything. She'd asked Stratton to keep an eye on them. He'd replied that nothing would have made him happier, but his tone had made it hard to tell what he really felt about that. She figured that him, Anna and Stuart could keep them under control. She imagined that the threat of violence from Anna would be enough to keep anyone in line, especially someone who had just received a severe beating.

"Matt." She began. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I'll say now that I didn't enjoy doing it."

He nodded. "Understandable. However, it seemed to bring him around, and that's what you wanted, right."

"Yes." She looked him in the eye. "Sandra told me about him. He is a cold, cruel and despicable man, but we need his support. The Whale King's crew are still loyal to him."

"No, I understand." He said. "I could see his point, but in the long term it was flawed. He couldn't have survived indefinitely."

"No." She said. "I didn't want to attack him like that, really Matt." She sighed. "Its just that, sometimes, a part of me wants to."

"I understand." He said. "It's a part of all of us. I think the cybernetic systems within us somehow change the way we think, even when we're not connected to our Zoids. It makes us more aggressive, more eager to fight. We anger easily, and lash out when angered."

"And against an outsider, and one who had in past attacked us..." She said. "A part of me wanted to just kill him there and then. Really."

"But you were able to control that." He replied.

She nodded. "I didn't... I didn't want to become like him, and like so many others I've seen. I didn't want to be a killer." She knew she'd killed in past. But those had been in combat, behind Zoid armour, in a way remote and detached. It had been a battle, them or her. Kill or be killed. But like that? The thought sickened her. "It's... its like something you told me once. We are taught to be like that. But... but it's wrong, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is." He said. "I've always been proud of the way you are able to fight it, however." He admitted. "In a way, you're the strongest person I know."

She slowly walked forwards, so she was standing right in front of him. "We're going to make it through this." She said. "I know we will." She leaned onwards, her head on his shoulder. "I'm just glad you're here, Matt. You... you've been so important to me recently. I... I don't think I could have come this far without you."

"Thank you." He said quietly. "You've become very important to me, Sel. Not just a commander and more then just a friend."

"I know." She said quietly. "I know."

Anna stormed into the Hovercargo, a determined look on her face. Sel and Sandra had told her of the plan, and she had agreed to it. After a bit of persuading, Stuart and Felix had agreed to it as well. Now there was only one person they needed to get on-side.

Reven. Anna didn't know her very well, but she knew her type. Greedy, selfish, conceited... she would never do anything to help anyone unless she got something out of it in return. And Anna doubted that saving the world would be enough motivation for her. She would want something more tangible and material.

Walking into the Hovercargo, she noticed Z-One standing by one of the doors to the ship's small living quarters. Walking over to him, she began. "I need to speak to Reven."

"She's inside." He replied. "But she won't want to see you now."

"Well it's important." Anna replied, angrily. "I need to see her right away."

"She's busy." He replied. "Very, very busy."

"Z-One?" Reven began from the other side of the door. "What's going on out there?"

"Anna wants to talk to you, boss." He replied. "urgently."

"Tell her to go away."

"She isn't"

"Fine." Reven snapped. "Give her an answer to whatever it is and then get rid of her."

"Okay." Z-One cocked his head, then turned back to Anna. "So what's up?"

"We're taking on the Gilvader." Anna replied. 'Between them, Rick, Pants and Sel have a plan to stop it. But we need your help."

"Well, okay." Z-One replied. "Sure thing."

"Thank you." Anna said, shaking his hand. "The fate of the world depends on this."

"Yeah, I know." Z-One shrugged. "Now you better get going before she realises what's happened."

Sandra sat in the Hovercargo's sickbay, watching over Vic. She was curled up on the bed, still muttering to herself. Now comes the hard part, Sandra thought. Rick's plan was reliant on a single element, one that was, right now, effectively out of action. It was Sandra's job to bring her around. At the best of times, Vic was a difficult person to deal with. Now, it would be practically impossible.

She gently put one hand on Vic's shoulder. "Get away form me!" She shouted in reply, and then curled up even tighter, trying to get as far away from Sandra as possible.

Sandra looked away for a moment. "I'm sorry, Vic." She began. "I... we all need your help." Vic didn't seem to reply. "That... that creature, the Gilvader, it did something to you, right?"

There was no response beyond a few sobs.

"I know how you feel." She said. "We're all afraid of it, Vic. And we can't stop it, but you can."

She stopped sobbing for a moment. She wasn't responding to Sandra, but it seemed to be an improvement.

"Vic, you're the only one who can stop that thing." She continued. "Please. I... we need you to confront it and take it on yourself. You're the only one who can do this, however."

She rolled over, for the first time looking at Sandra. She could see the look in Vic's eyes. It was one she'd never seen on Vic before, however. She looked like she was terrified. It was startling. Usually Vic was the one who was scaring other people.

"We need you to fight it." She offered. "You have to do this, Vic. You..." She was trying to look ofr the right words. "You've got to face that big tooly beast and kick it right in the cruets for what it did." She stopped and blinked. Did she really just say that?

"Wha?" Vic muttered.

Sandra sat down next to her. "Please, Vic." She said. "If not for us, then do it for yourself. Get even with it for what it did to you."

Vic nodded.

"Thank you." Sandra said, and offered one of her rare smiles. "I... I'm sorry about this, Vic. really I am. But... but it needs to be done."

Sel looked around at what had become her latest command. She couldn't have imagined a more diverse and mis-matched group if she'd tried. Besides her own men (with Alex looking insufferably smug for some reason, and Bekka who was looking rather excited) there was Sandra and Rick, Anna, Stuart and Felix, Shepherd (who was still bruised from their earlier fight) and Taro, Z-One and Reven (The latter looking decidedly sulky) and finally Darth Pants. She barely knew most of these people, and now she was asking them to place their lives, and everyone else on the planet, in each other's hands. Especially the one of them who was not present.

"What we are about to do may seem foolhardy or dangerous." She began. "But the truth is that we have no other options left. The Gilvader and its master, my former commander, both are a threat to all life on the planet. We have to stop them both and now."

She nodded to Pants. "Darth Pants has devised a system that will allow our Zoids to counteract the nanites that the Gilvader used to take control of them. This has eliminated probably their single most powerful weapon. The enemy will be expecting us to fall under their control, thus giving us an unexpected edge."

"However, that still leaves the Gilvader." She continued. "Nothing we have will work against it. None of our Zoids stand a chance against it. But we do have something else." She paused for a moment. "Most of you are aware of the Deathsaurer kept by our forces. This is an ancient and powerful machine, different from any other Deathsaurer. While powerful, however, it's also uncontrollable. Only one person has ever been able to operate it, and that was Vic Hagen."

"Our first objective then is to steal this machine." She explained. "It is kept in a secure hanger, almost directly below us. My plan is for us to go in and secure the machine itself. Once in, we will open the hangar doors and lift it out with the Whale King." She turned to her men. "This will not be easy. Our own people will try to stop us from taking it, and we must be ready to defend ourselves from them."

"After that, we will redeploy to the Gilvader's launch site and attack the enemy. The basic plan is that we allow the Deathsaurer to engage the Gilvader directly, while we support it by engaging the other enemy Zoids. Pants believes that once the Gilvader is eliminated, the other Zoids will likely be released form its control."

"One question, Captain." Shepherd began, emphasising her rank. "Do you know where the Gilvader is?"

"Yes, I do." She replied. Actually, she didn't, but she had a pretty good idea. "There is a plateau about a hundred kilometers north-west of here. It's a large, flat, open area that would be suitable to establish a launch facility in. Additionally, the site is off-limits to our people, which means that nobody would normally go there, providing secrecy and security for the site. Finally, there is... equipment there which could be used in the construction and launching of a space vehicle."

As one, Bekka, Bob and Alex looked at her. "I'll explain later." She offered before turning back to the others. "We will split into two teams. I will lead the first team, and Sandra the second. Both of us have spent a lot of time in the city's crawlways and tunnels between levels. Sandra will try and retrace the route Hagen took to reach the Deathsaurer, while I will try to find another way around. Pants will remain here to finish repairs on the Whale King."

She looked around her men again. "I'm not going to pretend that this will be easy. Since the attack last year, security around the Deathsaurer will have been tightened. And with the power off and the city apparently under siege, the troops on foot down there will likely be very angry and trigger-happy. But we have to do it. Not just for our sakes, but for the whole planet."

Rose looked up at the Liger's display. Two in the morning, or thereabouts. How long had she been here, she wondered. She and Slaughter had been just... talking for the last few hours. Ever since she'd mentioned the Gilvader, he'd seemed to open up. It was like he knew that it had awakened and what had happened, and was looking forwards to their certain doom with glee.

"Question." She began. "You said the Gilvader was one of your creations. There were others?"

"Indeed." He said. "Most of them were creations of pure Starrior technology and I know they no longer exist. There are a few others, however. Like the Deathsaurer."

"The Deathsaurer?" She asked. Now this was interesting. "But there are many Deathsaurers. True, they're far from common, but it's not unique."

"Interesting." He replied. "I created the first one myself. Clearly, it was more successful then the Gilvader, its intended replacement."

"Tell me about it." She continued, a thought forming in her head. She had a horrible feeling she knew where this was going.

"Like the Gilvader, its AI was based on my own." He said. "Only a few would be able to control it. Anyone else would be violently rejected"

That sounded familiar. "Modern Deathsaurers are black." She said. "Older ones are a more brownish colour. Would it look like one of those?"

"No." He replied. "The Deathsaurer I created was red, similar to the colour of your blood."


	51. Hard Boiled

Novo Zemalya

Dark Continent

0400 Hours

With a bit of gentle persuasion, Shepherd had allowed the teams access to the armouries stored onboard the Whale King. Sel had reasoned that most of them were only carrying sidearms and only equipped for Zoid piloting, while what they were doing needed heavier weapons and equipment. He'd agreed, possibly only because he realised that he was going to be going in with them.

The end result was a force composed with a mish-mash of different weapons and equipment. Z-One and Stuart had all to wear full suits of A-X body armour (in Z-One's case he'd kept his bandanna on underneath the one-way faceplate) while most everyone else had chosen to go with just flak vests. Sandra had chosen neither. While a number of them had chosen to go with the powerful but inaccurate XS autorifles, many had just chosen to just carry pistols. Sandra had all but stuffed her coat with spare clips.

The division of force had been based on keeping groups together. Sel was leading her men, as well as Shepherd and Taro on the premise that she could keep an eye on them. Sandra had herself, Rick, Anna, Stuart, Felix, Reven and Z-One. Vic had been transferred to the Whale King's sickbay, pending the arrival of the Deathsauer, while pants was remaining behind, supervising the rebuilding of the Whale King's engine and the loading of their Zoids.

While he was moving a large mess of tubing in order to do a transplant (and trying not to think about what it would take to rebuild his poor hovercargo), he noticed Reven walking around without her helmet on. As he watched, she tapped her palm onto her forehead a couple of times, then screwed up her eyes and gritted her teeth. Squinting for a moment, she shook her head.

What's she up to, he wondered? Leaving the tubing for the moment, he walked over to her. "Are you okay there, Reven?" He asked. "You look like there's something wrong there"

"Yeah." She said. "It's like there's this voice in the back of my head that's talking to me without me actually hearing it." She explained. "Its like there's someone whispering in my ear, but there's nobody actually there."

Pants cocked his head for a moment. "Hmmm..." He said. He kneeled down, then pressed the side of his head to the ground. "Ah. I see."

"See what?" She replied. "What the hell are you up to?"

He stood. "I see what's the problem, Reven." he said. "You are a Darth."

"I'm a what?" She replied, blinking.

"A Darth." He said. "You're hearing the Deathsaurer. My guess is that it's a very powerful Zoid, even by Deathsaurer standards. I can hear it too, but it's the sort of thing I'm used too."

"That's great." She replied. "But what does it mean?"

"It means..." Pants paused for a moment. "It means that you have abilities that mere humans only dream about! You can see inside a Zoid's core and realise its true form! Through your hard work and vision, you can create new Zoids, ones of unimaginable power!" He turned excitedly to face her. "Join me, Reven. Let me teach you the true ways of the Darth. I can bring out your abilities to their fullest!"

"Forget it." She replied. "Sounds too much like hard work."

Pants staggered back, and then slumped. Once again, he'd been bested. Curses.

"Shot down." Z-One added as he passed. "In flames, even."

Rubbing his chin, Pants considered his options. "Actually, there may be something else you can do." He began. "Sel's team is looking for an alternative route down there. You could act as a guide of sorts."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Simple." He replied. "You're hearing the Deathsaurer now. If you concentrate, you could probably guide yourself, using its voice as a reference."

"Right." She said. "Whatever."

"I'll get Sel." He said. "She has to hear about this."

As he ran off, Reven walked over to Z-One. "Do I look like a Darth to you?" She asked.

"I wouldn't know." He replied. "I've never met one before."

"What do you think Pants is going on about?" She continued.

"I figure he's a nut." Z-One replied. "But then, he's the one who's making sure that our Zoids don't get stuffed full of Nanites, so I'm tempted not to argue."

Sandra's team had what she felt was the easy job, which was to reach the Deathsaurer's hanger through a presumed known route. Of course. She figured, the only person who'd done the full trip was currently lying in a sickbay and gibbering to herself, and even then she'd apparently been lead on by either Desmond or the Deathsaurer itself. Still, she and Rick had made it halfway there with Rose, so it was a start.

She'd been in two minds about the last minute swapping of Reven and Z-One for Taro and Shepherd. While she didn't trust either of the two A-X commanders, she figured that Reven was likely to whinge and moan every step of the way. No sooner had they been assigned to her then Felix had gladly volunteered to keep an eye on the pair of them. She wasn't surprised. Anna didn't seem to like them either, but Sandra put that down to just Anna being herself.

They arrived at the hospital where the whole mess had started. "While those other A-X tools were here, they used this place as their base of operations." Sandra explained. "That's where we, and presumably Vic and your head tool got into the underground."

"Remember that guy being carried out on the stretcher?" Rick asked her, throwing off her explanation. 'The one with something stuck in his neck?"

"Yes, yes I do." She said. "I head that it was a scalpel."

Rick whistled. "Wow. Sounds like Vic was having a mad-on at them."

"Do you mind?" Shepherd asked. "We have a job to do here."

Sandra turned to look at him. "Right. Here's the rules. I lead, you follow. You do what I say. We all play nice with each other and nobody gets hurt. That all make sense?"

Shepherd looked around at the others. Finaly was wearing the same stupid grin that he always seemed to have, while Anna was carrying a length of metal pipe as well as a shotgun. Stratton remained behind him, scowling as he always seemed to do. He could see what side the numbers were on.

"So what's the plan from here?" Anna asked.

"We go down." Sandra replied. "There should be a way in through one of the basement levels. That will get us into the mess that runs under the city. We'll try to retrace our steps form there."

"Try?" She asked.

"Well, last time we had as whole bunch of troops as well as a local guide with us." Rick explained. "And there were people shooting at us, which meant that it got kinda confusing." He turned back to Sandra. "So what do you think happened to that girl we captured?"

"Nothing pleasant, I hope." She said flatly. "Now lets get going."

As they slipped into the hospital, Sandra quietly turned to Rick. "I'm surprised you'd suggest using that thing again." She was still far from completely happy with this plan, especially given what happened last time Vic piloted the Deathsaurer. "After all, it was you who nearly got reduced to crispy-fried date slice."

"Yeah well, I figure Vic will have something else to hold her attention this time." He said.

"And have you figured what we'll do after that, you big tool?" She said. "When she runs out of Gilvaders to boof and comes after the rest of us?"

"I'll think of something." He said. "If all else fails, I can try reasoning with her again."

Sandra turned and headed down the stairs. "Yeah, but you have to remember that she's completely gone now. I don't think reasoning is going to work."

"Maybe destroying the Gilvader will be therapeutic or something." He replied.

She rolled her eye. Rick's cheery optimism was sometimes too much for her to handle.

Back when the Zemalyan population lived in the upper city, they had constructed a number of emergency shelters that the population could hide in if the city was attacked. These shelters were in turn connected to the network of tunnels underneath the city, allowing the population to move across the city without having to go above ground. Like the rest of the city, the shelters had been abandoned, but many of them still existed.

Sel had located one in the middle of what had been an industrial park, the entranceway clogged with debris but not entirely inaccessible. The door was closed and seemed jammed shut, but Bob had been able to open it with a little work.

Sel led the team into the shelter. Shining her torch around it, she could see that it had not been used in decades. She grimly wondered if anyone had gotten the chance to reach it when Kandrak had attacked the city. Looking around, she found the back door into the tunnel network. It was also sealed, but was far easier to open then the first one.

Waiting until her team was inside the tunnel, she turned to Reven. "Okay, can you hear the Deathsaurer?"

Reven rubbed her chin for a moment. "Yes, yes I can." She replied.

"Now, can you lead us to it?"

She looked around, examining the different tunnels. "Hmmm..." She thought out loud. "It seems to be coming from over..." She turned around, then pointed down one of the tunnels. "That way."

"Right. Let's go." Sel lead the way down the corridor, Matt immediately behind her. Reven remained in the middle of the squad, Z-One and Bob behind her while Bekka was just ahead.

"Hey can I ask you a question, Reven?" Bekka began, dropping back so she was right next to the mercenary pilot.

"What is it?" She replied.

"Where'd you get the cool silver skinsuit from?" She asked. Reven was wearing her suit with the front unzipped down to about her navel, clearly not afraid to show off what she had to the world.

"Pilot supply shop." She replied casually. "Specialty wear for Storm Sworder pilots. I can tell you now that it wasn't cheap."

"I can imagine." Bekka said. "I've been after something like that for a while, but I can't find it around here."

Reven eyed the other woman warily, taking in her heavily tattooed bare arms. "I don't know. It might not be your style."

"You think?" Bekka asked.

Sel stopped. The corridor had ended at a T-junction, with two more hallways going off in either direction. "Well?" Sel asked.

Reven looked around. "Let's see..." She closed her eyes, then turned towards one corridor, and then the next.

"You okay there, boss?" Z-One asked.

"Be quiet you fool." She hissed back. "I'm thinking."

"This may take a while." Alex casually added.

She finally opened her eyes, looking down the left passage. "That way." She said. "I can hear it clear from down there."

"Right. Let's go." Sel lead them down the hallway, mentally wondering why she thought this would help while trying to get their bearings.

"Any reason why it's not me?" Bekka asked.

"Looking at you, I think the cut of the suit may revel a little too much." She said. "The tattoos and the shiny silver would clash."

"But you said that when you were younger, you used to have a tat on your-" Z-One began.

"Yes, but that was years ago. Besides, the suit wouldn't show that. And it's long gone anyway. So shut up." She hissed in reply.

This was going to be a long journey, Sel thought.

Sandra flashed her torch around the room, taking in the mess of pipes that seemed to cover the walls and ceilings. This room was very familiar, she thought. It was where she, Rick and O'Bannon had fought the A-X squad and Amelia. Looking around, she could see the bullet holes in the walls and the dents in the pipes from the battle.

"This is as far as we got on our last trip down here." Sandra announced. "From here, we have to best-guess it, but I think I've got a pretty good idea."

"Can I ask what you were doing here?" Anna began.

"Looking for Vic, actually." Rick replied. "Y'see, she had been kidnapped by A-X and we had followed her here. It's a long story, but eventually we tracked her down to this place. Only when we got here, she was long gone. Instead there was a bunch of A-X guys shooting at the ceiling while some woman, apparently one of their leaders, shouted at them."

So now it made sense, Shepherd thought. Hagen tuned on them and killed Hallis, then retreated to get the Deathsaurer herself. She set up a battle between the locals and the A-X troops and then fled, tying up both of them and letting her get away. That only leaves Desmond himself. "So do you know what happened after that?"

"Well, Vic found the Deathsaurer, Pie attacked us and there was a lot of badness." Rick replied.

"It doesn't matter." Felix sneered. "Let's just keep moving."

Sandra looked around. "I'm inclined to agree with them." She said. "Right. Looking from here, I'd say Hagen went..." She walked over to one corner of the room. "That way. There's a small maintenance hatch in amongst the pipes. It's a difficult fit for most of us, but its small and out of the way, which means that a mad little tool like her would love it."

She ducked and stepped her way through the maze of pipes. "Got it." She said as she pulled the door open. "This way, people."

The hatch lead to a small, narrow hallway. It was large enough for them to travel through single-file, and even then it was cramped. Shepherd couldn't help but notice that Stratton's gun seemed to be pressed into his back. He figured that if he pressed him for a reason, Stratton would argue that he had nowhere else to put it in such a narrow space.

Stepping out of it, they found themselves in another plain concrete corridor. "Any clues as to where she went from here?" Anna asked, all but looming over Taro.

"I'll assume that she kept going in the same direction." Sandra replied. "So let's try that."

The next few minutes passed in silence. The corridor proceeded for about a hundred meters before abruptly ending in a stairwell that descended several levels. Seeing no other options, they descended.

"Gotta love the layout in this place." Rick added as they reached the abrupt ending of the stairs, which continued off to another corridor. "It looks like people kept throwing bits together without figuring what was already there.

"Sloppy and disorganised." Anna spoke up. "It makes you wonder what they were thinking when they built this place."

"I don't think they did." Rick said. "I heard things from some of the locals that made it seem like they found it, rather then built it."

"Found it?" She asked. "Who are these people anyway?"

"Well-" Rick began, but was interrupted by a metal clattering sound, like a stack of tins falling over. "What was that?" he asked.

"Get down!" Sandra asked. "Now!"

There was a burst of automatic weapons fire that sent the members of the group ducking for cover. Bullets stitched a row of holes across the wall, sending chunks of concrete flying. "What was that?" Rick shouted.

"We just tripped a very primitive alarm system." Sandra shouted back. "Frelling great. I should have thought of that."

She scrambled to her feet, pulling out her guns as she went. Not wasting any time, she fired into the empty, darkened doorway where the shots likely came from. She wasn't aiming to kill, but to at the very least discourage the attacker.

"Yeah baby!" Shepherd turned around to see Finaly, clad in a borrowed suit of body armour and carrying an XS rifle leaping to his feat. "Eat hot lead, everything in the general vicinity!" he shouted as he opened fire into the same room.

"Get down you fool!" Anna shouted at him as she dashed for cover. Felix joined her, firing his pistol out from behind a support pillar.

Seeing his chance, John dashed across the room in the other direction. He had no idea who these people were, but they were well set up and knew what they were doing, He doubted that they were form the local defence forces, however. He figured that they may have deployed troops to secure access to the city, but these people, whoever they were, had been too well prepared. They had been here for a while.

Ducking behind another support pillar, he assessed the situation. Both sides were firing from cover, neither able to claim an advantage. The attackers were carrying heavier automatic weapons, but were either terrible shots or had rather inaccurate weapons.

Could it be? He asked himself. Quite possibly. Some of the A-X troops from Desmonds' forces could have survived whatever had happened. It would be quite easy to be 'lost' and 'unaccounted for' in this nightmarish maze under the city. He doubted that the security forces even came in here on a regular basis.

This could be his chance. If he could join forces with these people, he could use them to eliminate Blackmore and Magyari's forces and then seize the Deathsaurer for himself. With enough force, he could easily persuade Pants to modify it for conventional control. All of a sudden, things were looking good for him.

He darted across the room, halting on the edge of another open doorway. Peering around, he could make out several armoured figures inside, occasionally illuminated by the muzzle flashes from their guns. Definitely A-X.

He cautiously advanced towards them, hoping that the sound of gunfire would mask their approach. Before he could get there, however, there was another clattering sound. One of them spun around and shouted something about more of them, before opening fire.

"Wait!" Shepard shouted as he ducked around the corner, the bullets tearing up the floor where he had been standing. "I am Major John-" Another burst of gunfire chipped away at the wall, sending him scurrying. Damn it. He realised that in his black uniform, her probably looked like one of the locals. And after, what, three months of hiding down here, these people were bound to be paranoid.

"Damn it, I'm on your si-" He began, but was cut off by someone landing on his back. Before he could get up, he could feel a pistol begin pressed into the back of his head.

"Do it." Felix snarled. "And give me an excuse."

"Damn you." He replied. "Get off me."

"No." Stratton said, flatly. "You abandoned your men once before. I'm not going to let it happen again."

"What?"

"Georges River, remember?" He said. "You ran off in your damned Pegasus leaving the rest of your men to face the music when the UZN troops showed up."

"How did you know that?"

"I was one of your men." He said, then spat on the ground next to Shepherd's face. "Was."

"What do you want?" He snarled.

"I want you to cooperate with us. I want you to follow what Sandra says. You got that?"

"And what do I get out of this?" He asked.

"I don't tell them what you did here, and Anna doesn't imbed a metal pipe in your skull."

He considered this for a moment. "Fine then." he muttered. "Now get off me."

Listening to the sounds of the gunfire, Sandra could hear that someone had just tried to attack the enemy group form behind. One of the enemy soldiers, whoever they were, had turned to fire at whoever it was, which gave her a chance. "Stuart!" She shouted. "Fire in their general vicinity!"

"You got it! Yeah!" He opened fire, his gun spraying bullets into the darkened room. The enemy fire stopped for a moment as troops scurried for cover from the inaccurate but still potentially lethal fire.

Seizing her chance, Sandra burst out form cover and ran towards the enemy-occupied room. Pulling out both pistols, she opened fire on the first shape she came across. The figure collapsed, the one standing next to it turning and opening fire at her. Not giving him a chance, she cut back in the other direction and then dived, opening up with both guns as she went. Hitting the ground, she rolled away and started running again.

Another enemy soldier opened fire, the bullets tearing up a sleeping bag behind her, filling the air with fibers. Rather the opening fire on him again, Sandra concentrated on running, making it across the room before ducking behind a corner. So far, so good. Now to see if her plan came off.

There was the roar of a shotgun as the rest of her group opened fire on the distracted and confused enemy force. They were so busy groping around in the darkness for this new attacker that they had panicked and forgotten about the rest of her team. That was Sandra's plan, break them up and let the others finish them off. Anyone she dropped was a bonus.

Slapping a fresh clip into each gun, she charged across the doorway, running and firing as she went, while rounds flew all around her. Several more went past her, this time coming form behind Leaping away, she slid to a halt on the floor and rolled over, bringing her guns to bear on the new attackers. Before she fired, however, she saw who they were.

Felix and Shepherd stood by the back of the room, guns in hand. "Dare I ask what you two are doing around here?" she asked.

"We were trying to flank the enemy." Felix replied. "Weren't we?"

"Yes, we were." John replied, muttering.

"We didn't expect you to do... well whatever it was you did."

"No, we weren't." He added.

Sandra leaped to her feet. "Well, I'm glad you were there." She listened for the sounds of gunfire, but heard nothing. Raising a gun, she leaped around and glared into the darkened room. Despite the darkness, it was clear that there was nobody standing in there.

"Everyone okay?" She asked.

"More or less." Rick replied. He stood up and waved to her. Sandra picked up her torch and shone it on the floor, checking over the bodies. A-X soldiers, she thought. These guys must have been survivors from... She turned to look at Shepherd, an angry glare on her face.

"Major!" Taro shouted as he stepped into the room, a weird pistol that looked like nothing as much as a hairdryer in his hand. "These are A-X soldiers."

"How surprising." He replied, flatly. "A pity I didn't get the chance to talk to them first. Maybe this could have been averted."

"Of course." Sandra replied. "Now let's get moving."

"This should be it." Reven announced, indicating to a heavy, tight sealed door.

"Good." Sel replied, trying to remain calm. So far Reven's newly discovered Darth abilities hadn't given them much luck in locating the Deathsaurer's hanger. She had no reason to think that this particular door should be any more useful then the last three "certain" locations Reven had found. "Bob, open it."

"Yes sir." Bob replied. Visibly straining even in the darkness, Bob managed to twist the handle on the solid metal door enough to allow it to open. For a moment there was an optimistic silence as it swung open.

Sel cautiously stepped out through the doorway and looked around, instantly realising that, once again, they weren't where they wanted to be. Instead, she was on an open catwalk, hanging above the city itself. For a moment she was about to turn around and let Reven know exactly what she thought of her navigational skills, but then, as the turned, she realised what she was seeing.

The city was dark, its massive towers little more then black blobs in the inky darkness. Emergency lights here and there picked out a few places and allowed her to recongise individual buildings, bit for the most part it was a sea of blackness. As she watched, other, smaller things became visible. The wail of emergency sirens, with the flashing lights of rescue vehicles moving across the city's roadways. The green glow of Dark Zoid powerplants as elements of the city's armed forces moved in, presumably to maintain order. Fires. Gunfire. Shouting.

It was all coming apart, she realised. No power, no way out... the well-ordered society they had built was falling apart.

No. She wouldn't let it.

"Captain?" Matt asked. "What is it?"

"Just a minute." She replied. Searching around and trying to recall details, she found the partition between the city proper and the military's facilities. So they were heading in the right direction, she thought. Now to get there. "I think I've found the way to the hangers." She said. "This way."

She gestured for them to follow. Cautiously, she lead the way across the catwalk suspended over the city. "Captain?" Beka began as they walked. "What's happening down there?"

"The end of the world." Alex replied. "I think they're under 'every man for himself' rules now."

"We have to stop this." Bob said.

"Yeah, whatever." Reven replied. "Let's just find that Deathsaurer so we can get the hell out of here."

Bob spun around towering over her. "What was that?" He snarled.

"I was just saying that we should get out of here." She replied.

"In case you missed it." Bob replied, angrily. "This is our home we're talking about." He gestured to the rest of his squad.

"That's... nice." She replied. "But right now, I don't care."

"Why you-"

"Bob, stop it!" Sel shouted.

He turned back to Sel. "Yes, captain."

Z-One placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't mind her." He said, "She's always like that."

The group proceeded along the walkway for what was probably only a few hundred meters, but seemed to Sel to be an eternity. At the other end was another door, leading back into an enclosed area, apparently a part of the roof of the cavern. Sel quietly wondered how much of the city was like this; mazes of seemingly randomly constructed passages that connected to other strange places. Probably more then she would ever know. Between three completely separate sets of inhabitants there was probably thousands of kilometers of them.

Cautiously opening the door, Sel stepped inside the passageway. Looking around, she could make out a tangled mess of pipes and conduits, but precious little else in the darkness. It reminded her of the maze she and Matt had descended through when they ventured into the city's lower levels. Only then I had a vague idea where I was going, she thought. This time, I'm best guessing and my only guide is useless.

The team cautiously advanced through the darkness. She cautiously wondered how long they'd been down here. Had Sandra gotten to the hanger ahead of her, she asked herself. Did they already have the Deathsaurer?

"Something up, captain?" Matt asked.

"No." She replied. "Just thinking, and trying to figure out where we are. I have a rough idea, but..." She shrugged. "I wish we could reach Sandra's team and find out what's happening with them."

"I'm sure she knows what she's doing." Matt replied.

"It's not her I'm worried about." She said. "She's still with Shepherd and Watanabe. I don't trust either of them."

"Me neither." He admitted. "But I'm sure that she can handle them if anything happens."

A noise further up the corridor cut Sel off before she could reply. It sounded like the squeaking of boots on concrete, like a group of people moving quickly. She signalled a halt, and cautiously drew her own gun.

"What is it?" Matt asked quietly.

"I think I hear someone ahead." She whispered back. "No idea who." She heard it again, but louder, and with a clattering of equipment. "Armed troops."

"Who's?" He asked.

"At this stage, I doubt it matters. Our own troops would probably just as quickly take us out for breaching the city's quarantine" She quickly turned around. "Take cover everyone." She hissed out.

The members of her team scurried for cover as the footsteps approached. Watching form behind a pipe, Sel could see a squad of civil defense troopers enter the room. Watching them carefully, she waited until they had passed her position, wondering what they would do. The squad stopped at the door, looking around and checking the door.

Her heart skipped a beat. They had closed the door but hadn't gotten the chance to re-seal it before they'd heard the squad and gone for cover. Which meant that if they checked the seal...

"Sir!" One of the troopers called out. "This door has been opened. Recently too!"

"Search the area!" The squad's commander shouted out. The troopers fanned out, shining torches mounted on the end of their guns around the room. Sel remained quiet. Her men were still wearing their black flightsuits. For the most part, they should blend in, unless...

There was a glint of silver as one of the torches reflected off something shiny hidden behind a pipe. "Come on out of there!" A soldier shouted. "Now! Come out or I shoot!"

...Reven, she thought. Damn.

Reven stood up from where she was hiding, her hands in the air and her skin-tight silver flightsuit unzipped to below her navel. "I surrender, don't shoot." she began, her voice surprisingly calm.

"Don't move!" A soldier shouted as he moved towards her. "Remain where you are and you won't get hurt!"

"Come on." Reven replied, a smile on her face. "Can't we work something out here?"

"Drop it now!" A figure emerged from behind another pipe, clad in black body armour and carrying a bulky rifle. Sel tried to figure who it was, then figured it out. Z-One, Reven's minion. Great. A soldier turned towards him, gun ion hand. Before the soldier could do anything, however, Z-One fired.

Or at least he tried to. The XS autorifle in his hands bucked and kicked, spraying bullets across the room. Reven screamed and ducked for cover as a bullet struck the pipe next to her. The aged pipe cracked, then shattered, spraying water across the squad.

Sel burst out from her cover, firing her pistol at the security troops. She wasn't aiming to hit them, more to keep them distracted and off-balance. "Everyone!" She shouted out. "Move!"

One of the troops opened fire form behind cover, a burst form his submachine gun tearing up the wall behind Z-One. In response, the armoured mercenary squeezed off another burst form the rifle, the bullets tearing up concrete and bouncing off pipes. Sel shouted at him to stop, but the sound of gunfire and the echoes from the bullets on the pipes drowned her out.

Matt charged out from seemingly nowhere, crashing into another soldier and slamming him into a wall. Before he could respond, Matt slammed his head into the wall again, stunning him. A second soldier went down as Bekka leaped out of seemingly nowhere, her booted foot ending up in the man's face before he knew what was happening.

Spinning around, she saw a trooper stepping around a corner. She fired at him, her shots digging into the concrete wall by his head. The soldier ducked back around behind the wall, remaining there for the moment. She watched the wall cautiously, waiting for him to emerge.

Instead, a small object came sailing through the air from she was hiding. "Grenade!" Sel shouted out to everyone in the room, friend or foe. "Grenade!" There was a metallic clanging sound as the grenade bounced off a pipe and then clattered to the floor in amongst a collection of various pipes, before exploding.

Sel was sent flying by the blast, metal debris sailing past her as she went. Several of the water mains burst open, spraying water in all directions. Before she could get to her feet, there was a second explosion that filled the air with smoke and dust, and left her momentarily stunned.

Shaking her head to clear it, Sel looked down the hallway that she'd ducked into. Between the lack of light and the dust and smoke in the air, it was hard to make out what was going on, but it looked like a portion of ceiling had collapsed and blocked off the hallway, which left her effectively cut off. She wanted to shout out to the others, but then she realised that it would probably cause more problems then it solved. She'd probably have the entire Civil Defence force down on her head before she found any of the others.

She tried to get her bearings, once again difficult in the underground passages. Her wrist computer wasn't helping any, being reliant on either a direct satellite connection that she couldn't reach form this far down, or a network of booster relays that was currently un-powered. So she was lost. Great.

She tried to figure where they were last going. Reven had said something about it being in some direction or another, but had been awfully vague. And that was before Sel had gotten lost. Squinting at a wall, she could make out an ancient marker. Briefly flashing on her torch then turning it off before anyone followed it, she found it was indicating the direction of the core. Well, it was a start. She decided to follow it, figuring that the Deathsaurer hanger was still closer to the core then she was.

She had no idea how long it was before she heard the footsteps behind her. She swung around, bringing her pistol up, only to find herself looking at the barrel of another pistol, pointed straight at her face. Looking back, she could see Rose holding the gun, her face illuminated by a small neon strip tied to a cord around her neck. She looked far from her usual pristine self, with her hair a mess and a tired look on her face.

"Rose!" She started. "What are you doing here?" Despite recognising her assailant, she wasn't prepared to lower her pistol. It seemed fair, as Rose didn't seem to want to either.

"I could ask you the same thing, sis." She replied. "Out for a walk, huh?"

"I'm trying to save the city." She replied. "No, scratch that, I'm trying to save everyone on the planet."

"The Gilvader took the core." Rose replied. "I figured that much. I also figured what De Lyon would do with a space vessel and a nanoforge."

"You know what it is?" She was surprised by this. "How?"

"I know things." She was doing a good job of retaining her usual smug demeanour, despite her appearance. "You're looking pretty good for someone who's been declared officially dead."

"I have?"

Rose nodded. "They've sealed the city tight. Nothing gets in or out. Of course, with the power off and the people going crazy, the odds are that we'll all be dead before we get anywhere."

"That's why I have to do what I'm doing." Sel replied. "Please, Rose, get out of my way."

"You're going after the Deathsaurer, aren't you?" She said. "So how are you going to control it?"

"We have Hagen with us." She bluffed. She wasn't going to say what state Vic was in. "She can operate it and use it to defeat the Gilvader."

"And go nuts again and wipe us all out." She smiled. "Nice plan, sis."

"So what were you going to do?" Sel asked. "Pilot it yourself? We both remember how that went."

Rose visibly twitched at that point. Sel remembered the time both of them had been selected to try to activate the Deathsaurer. Sel had been rejected and left with a headache. Rose had been violently thrown around and had passed out, much to her embarrassment.

"Well I'd hoped for something better from you." Rose replied. "After all, you're the perfect one, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?" Sel snapped.

"Isn't it obvious?" Rose said, sneering. "You with your two genetically-enhanced parents and your top scores on everything. Do you know what I had? A pair of dropout bums who decided that freedom and liberty and all that crap didn't put food on their plates. Only one of them got knocked up and they realised that they couldn't feed another mouth. So you know what they did?"

"No-"

"They abandoned their child. She was found by someone and taken in by the system, and just managed to be lucky enough to scrape her way into the warrior programs." Rose finished. "Ever wonder why I was such a sulk on parent visiting days?"

"I'm sorry." Sel said. "I didn't know."

"Yeah, well, its not something I tell everyone." Rose finished. "Now put the gun down."

"No." Sel replied, a determined glare on her face. "I'm not going to let you stop me. I have to do this, Rose. Don't make me have to shoot you." She didn't want to. Rose had been her best friend when growing up. And while they had drifted apart, there was still something of a bond. "I mean it."

"I can't." She calmly replied. "I have my duty."

"Damn it." Sel said. "Please, don't make me do this."

"Well..." Rose said, then smiled. "It appears that my gun has jammed." She lowered her pistol. "And, as such, I can't stop you." She gestured down the hallway. "You better go before I manage to clean it or something."

"Thanks, Rose." Sel said.

"Don't thank me yet." She said. "You've still got to figure out a way to control that thing. Now get moving."

Sel sprinted off down the corridor, leaving Rose behind. She knew this would come back to haunt her, and that one of these days Rose would be asking for something out of her in return. But for now, she didn't care. She had a job to do.

Sandra bashed the vent open as quietly as she could, only to have it clatter loudly to the floor. Wincing, she leaped out of the vent, landing with both guns drawn. Scanning the bay, she could see very little in the darkness, save for a single solitary shape lurking in the middle.

This had to be it, she thought.

Peering back into the vent, she signalled the all clear to her team. Rick clambered out, followed by Stuart, then Anna, a very surly looking Shepherd, Taro and finally Felix. All present and accounted for, she thought.

"This it?" Rick whispered

Sandra nodded. "Big Zoid in the middle of the bay. Can't think of what else it could be."

Anna looked up at the huge shape looming over them. "A Deathsaurer." She said. "I never thought I'd see one up close. And I never wanted to have to depend on one to save me."

"Don't trust it." John muttered. "I've seen is thing in action. It's a monster, and an uncontrollable one at that. If we weren't so desperate, I'd be glad to see it stay here."

"And don't either of you get any tooly ideas regarding that thing." Sandra added, turning back to them. "It can only be controlled using a special cybernetic control system. Even then, Vic's apparently the only person to ever pilot it successfully."

Before he could say anything, Sandra heard a metallic clanging sound form the other side of the bay, followed by the sound of a female voice. Signalling the squad to remain silent, she slowly moved around the bulk of the Deathsaurer, cautiously approaching what she thought was the source of the voice. Listening carefully, she tried to make out what they were saying.

"...damn it, I'm never doing that again! Look at me! I'm filthy! And my jacket will probably never be the same either. Can you imagine how hard it is to clean Albino Weasel fur?"

Reven, she thought. Holstering her guns, she walked forwards, gradually making out shapes in the darkness. A huge one loomed out in front of her. Bob, she thought. It had to be. "It's me, Sandra!" She called out.

"Sandra?" She heard Matt ask. A torch came on, shining directly in her eye. Covering her face with her hand, she shied away form the bring beam for a moment. "Yeah, it's me. Get that frelling torch out of my face."

"Sorry." He replied, shining it away. "Did you all make it through?"

"Regrettably, yes." she replied, thinking about the two A-X officers. "You?"

He shook his head. "We lost Sel." He said. "She was separated in a fight and we couldn't locate her afterwards."

Damn it, she thought. Sel was the last person she wanted to go missing now. As much as she hated to admit it, Sel's leadership would be vital for the success of the operation. Tool. Just what she needed. "Can we go back and search for her?"

Matt looked around. "As much as I'd want to do that, Sandra, you know we can't." He replied, the strain obvious to her. "We have more pressing matters to deal with."

"Actually, that's not a problem, Matt." Sandra and Matt turned, shining their torches in the direction of the voice. Sel emerged from the darkness, walking over from where Sandra had entered. "I managed to find my way after all, and ended up following Sandra's team."

The relief to both Sandra and Matt was obvious. "So that's everyone accounted for then?" He asked.

Sandra nodded. "Right. Let's see about getting Big Red out of here." She shined her torch onto the Deathsaurer's body, revealing a blood-red panel that seemed all the more sinister for the darkness. Moving the torch up the Deathsaurer's body, she noticed a grey protrusion on the back, located where the rear cannons protecting the fan would normally be. Following it, she noted that it was similar in design to the manoeuvre venires mounted on some models of Iron Kong. She whistled. "Somebody's been busy. Looks like our boy has had a makeover."

Sel shined her torch on it, picking out other details. The back cannons had been replaced with a pack containing a missile launcher, while new weapons were mouted on its arms. "Definitely." She said. "Maybe they thought that it was now a viable weapon and decided to make some improvements."

"Well, if it makes it better able to take on the Gilvader, then it's a good thing." Sandra replied

"What's up with you guys?" Rick asked as he walked over. Sandra shined the torch on the Deathsaurer's back. "Bloody Deathy Mk II." He said and whistled. "Nice."

"So how do we get this thing out of here?" Sandra asked.

"There's a manual control for the main hangar doors." Sel replied. "It was designed to be used in a situation like this. We can open the main doors, and then lift the Deathsaurer out with the Whale King."

"Assuming the Whale King is functional." Matt added.

"It will be." Sel said. "I trust Pants to fix it."

"You don't know him that well." Rck added. "But then, who knows. He may yet surprise us all."

"Rick, you're talking about the same tool that made the Double Dragon." Sandra replied.

"Yeah, but that surprised me." He finished, and smiled.

Well, there was no faulting that logic. "Right." She said. "Sel, call Pants. Let's get this big red tool airborne."

Anyone watching inside the city would have been treated to an amusing and unique sight that morning. A Whale King hovered over an open elevator shaft, a number of long, thick cables descending form its belly. After a while, the watcher would have been treated to the sight of a Deathsaurer being lifted out of the shaft by the cables, and then hanging from underneath the Whale King, before finally being withdrawn into its belly.

Pants looked up to the ship. While its right flank was still a mess, its engines were now fully functional. It had taken him a lot of hard work, but he'd managed to get it back in shape. Of course, his poor Hovercargo would never be the same again. Still, it was a worthy goal.

Sel stood next to him, talking on her communicator. Finishing the message, she turned to the others. "That was Captain Tweedle. He says the Deathsaurer is loaded and secured for transport. He'll put the ship down again so we can load up, and then we're ready to go." She looked around the small collection of pilots and Zoids. This was it, she thought. No turning back now.

Before she or anyone else could add anything, there was an explosion from one of the other Zoid elevators. A grey and black Blade Liger leaped out from the shaft, and ran towards the assembled group. Running straight at Sel, it stopped short, just in front of her. Behind Sel, various pilots went for various Zoids, all knowing they couldn't make it before the Liger struck.

"What do you want?" Sel shouted at it, starting at the Zoid, not moving a millimetre.

"Sel, I did you a favour earlier today." Rose called back form the Zoid's cockpit. "Now I want something in return."

"What?" Sel asked, angrily.

"I want to join your group." She said. "I want to stop that thing too."


	52. A Better Tomorrow

Whale King Havoc

Above the Dark Continent

1530 Hours

Much to Sandra's surprise (and everyone else's relief) the jerry-rigged repairs on the Havoc's engines had held. While probably not capable of full performance, the ship was doing enough to get them to their objective, and that's what counted.

There had been precious little in the way of a briefing. They knew almost nothing about what they were walking into, only what they had to do. Disable or destroy the Gilvader and stop the launch of the core. It seemed easy on paper. Of course, actually doing it would be the hard part. The theory said that the Deathsaurer would take on the Gilvader, leaving them free to do all the other work. Of course, what actually happened was another matter.

Instead, she and Sel had allowed everyone the chance to say their last words to each other or whatever else they wanted to do before going out to what she felt was almost certain death. Their reactions had been what she'd expected. Rick and Bekka had gone off to find some private corner and talk for a while. John and Taro were having a muttered discussion on the far side of the Zoid bay, Felix lurking right next to them. Anna was stretching and doing what appeared to be warm-up exercises, as was Bob. And Sel and Rose seemed to be having some sort of heated discussion.

The last one fascinated Sandra. She'd realised that there was something between the two women, but she couldn't figure what it was. It was a matter that could wait for another time, however. She had one final important duty to attend to.

Rose, Sel noted, wasn't even trying to look the part of a military professional. She'd left her jacket behind, and was instead wearing a sleeveless, skin-tight minitop accompanied by what appeared to be a palmtop computer on a chain around her neck. More fascinating was the fact that it was hooked into a pair of earphones, and she seemed to be talking into it. What was she doing, Sel wondered. Recording her notes for posterity?

"I wanted to talk to you." She began.

"Just a second." Rose pressed a button on the computer and put it down. "Sorry about that. What's up, sis?"

"I want to know what you're doing here." Sel began. "And don't give me that whole 'looking out for me' thing. I know you, Rose. You don't do anything for anybody unless there's something in it for you."

"Like I said, I'm collecting on the debt you owe me for letting you through to the Deathsaurer." She replied casually. "Isn't that enough for you?"

"No." Sel shook her head. "What are you really up to?"

"Believe it or not, Sel, I do want to stop that thing." She replied. "What you said got to me. I decided that I couldn't stand and do nothing. Not after it did to us."

"And the fact that you then can come out of this looking like a hero has nothing to do with it, right?"

"It never crossed my mind." Rose turned and smiled. "Seriously. I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing it for everyone else."

Sel eyed her warily. "Really?"

Rose nodded. "Believe me. I want that thing dead as much as you do."

"Fine." Sel said. "You do understand that you're assigned to the first wave of the ground troops?" Sel had put Rose's Blade Liger in with the other fast-moving Zoids. It made sense.

"I know. I look forward to it." She casually replied.

"Fine." Sel said. "I'll see you in the bay in a few minutes." She turned and walked off.

"Oh, Sel?" Rose asked. Sel stopped and turned back for a moment. "Thanks."

Sandra walked into the ship's sickbay. Vic was lying in bed, still curled up in a ball. The ships' chief surgeon, a handsome young man whose face was marred by a long scar, was with her. Sandra had decided not to ask where the scar had come from. All she cared about was his abilities.

"Well?" She snapped as she entered.

"She's resting." He replied. "Physically she's fine. Mentally, well... at least she's responding to some things."

"Good." She said. "It's time." She knelt down next to Vic's bed. "Vic, it's me, Sandra. Can you hear me?"

She nodded.

"It's time, Vic. We need you to do this one last thing for us." She spoke softly. "After that, it's all over. The Gilvader will never be able to get you again." One way or the other, she mentally added.

"Okay." Vic said, quietly.

Sandra stood and nodded to the surgeon. He gently picked up Vic in his arms, and followed Sandra out of the room. Joined at the door by Sel, the three of them proceeded to the main Zoid bay.

Formerly packed with A-X's hordes of attack and Gravity Zoids, the bay was now half-empty. The huge, ominous red form of the Deathsaurer dominated it, towering over everything else present. Matt's Deadborder, the next tallest Zoid they had, didn't even come close to it. The others were an eclectic mix of designs and types that seemed to be completely unconnected to each other. Vic's Gunsniper was at the back of the bay, after Sandra insisted that they weren't going to leave it behind in the city ruins. Besides, they may yet need it.

Sel flipped open a small panel on the back of the Deathsaurer's head and keyed a code into the keypad located within. There was a hiss of escaping air, then the Deathsaurer's head swung forward, revealing the cockpit within. Sandra nodded to the surgeon, who gently placed Vic into the Zoid's command couch.

Sandra leant into the cockpit. "You okay Vic?" She nodded quietly. "Okay. This is the most difficult part. I want you to be strong for me, for all of us. Can you do that?"

She nodded again. "I... I think so."

"Thank you." Sandra stepped back, and turned to Sel. Sel leant into the cockpit and carefully peeled away a fake skin patch on the back of Vic's neck, reveling the cybernetic ports concealed underneath. A legacy of her last trip to the city, Sandra had never actually seen them before.

"You may want to turn away." Sel said, not looking straight at Sandra. "This can be a little upsetting to some people."

"I'll be fine." Sandra replied.

Sel nodded and opened a panel on the back of the Deathsaurer's command couch, bringing out several connection cables. She delicately plugged them into the ports on the back of Vic's neck, checking each one of them. "I'm trained to do this to myself in the field" Sel said as she worked. "You get used to it." She double-checked all the connections, then stood back. "She's in. Pants has rigged the Zoid's power system to remote, so we'll be able to activate it and not her."

"And what happens then?" Sandra asked.

"Well, the Deathsaurer will connect to Vic's mind. She'll probably go straight into the 'berserk' mode and start shooting." Sel explained. "We'll want to be away form the ship when that happens."

Sandra nodded. "Right. Hopefully she will see the Gilvy as being the top threat and go straight for it."

"We hope." Sel said. "After that, well, its anyone's guess."

A siren rang out onboard the ship. "Enemy Zoids approaching!" Captain Tweedle's nervous voice called out. "All hands to combat stations!"

Sandra looked to Sel then looked down to the Zoid bay. "That's use." She said. "No sense in delaying the inevitable. Might as well get tooled now."

The first attack wave consisted of the few remaining Gravity Pteras and Glaive Quamas, but fortunately not the Gilvader. Sel Suspected that De Lyon may be too concerned with the perpetration to launch the core to be worried about delaying with them immediately. As expected, they flew straight at the Whale king with little concern for their own safety.

Reven and Z-One's Zoid were launched and sent after the attackers. Reven effortlessly put down a Gravity Ptera before they even reacted or acknowledged their presence. No sooner was it out of action, however, then the enemy's tactics shifted. The enemy Zoids suddenly became a lot more aggressive, going after their Zoids and ignoring the ship for the moment.

"Now this is more like it." Reven shouted as she yanked on the Storm Sworder's control stick, a missile form one of the Pteras going straight past her. "Pity they're not more of a challenge. And Sandra said this would be hard." Her Storm Sworder charged straight at the enemy Zoid, passing straight over its top, one wing blade cutting through its side. The Gravity Ptera's wing came clean away, the Zoid simply falling out of the sky. "How are you doing?"

"I've got a flying iguana up my bum and trying to shoot me up. That's how I'm doing." Z-One replied. "How are you?"

The Storm Sworder looped over, diving straight down at the enemy Zoid. Squeezing the trigger, Reven raked it with fire from her wing cannons. Damaged, the enemy Zoid peeled away and tried to escape her. "I'm doing well."

De Lyon watched the proceedings form a control room one of the few reinforced permanent buildings at the site. Outside stood the end result of all his work, the completed core launch vehicle. He sincerely doubted that its original creators, whoever they were, would have been able to recognise it now.

Stripped from their original housing, the Sovetski Sozyz's four massive interplanetary drives had been strapped to the outside of the hull, and then combined with a network of propellant tanks and power relays. The end result made the whole thing look like nothing so much as a mess of tubing with a smooth, conical tip. As messy and ill-prepared as it looked, however he knew what it was capable of. It was only a matter of time now.

The captured A-X ships hung above the launch site in a halo, acting as a deterrent to any airborne intruders. Between the force in the air, what he had on the ground and, of course, the Gilvader itself, De Lyon figured that the site itself was secure enough for him to launch without any risks.

He was aware of the intrusion by the enemy Whale King. He hadn't expected it, but at the same time. He wasn't completely surprised. He'd suspected that somebody, possibly Magyari or O'Bannon would have been able to figure out what he was up to and might try to stop him. it didn't matter. Nothing they had could do anything to him now. He'd sent his few remaining flying Zoids out to delay them, just so they didn't try anything drastic, like a kamikaze run on the launch.

Suddenly, there was a voice. It sounded like someone talking inside his head. He wasn't hearing the words; they were going straight into his mind. It was an unfamiliar voice, one that spoke of malice and destruction. He stood and looked around the room, trying to figure where it had come from. There, he heard it again, louder this time. What was it? He'd heard something similar when he'd first made mental contact with the Gilvader, but that wasn't it.

Unless...

He turned to Sturm. "Take over here. I'm going out in the Gilvader."

"Major?" Sturm asked. "Surely at this critical stage its-"

"Now!" He shouted. "I cannot waste any time!" He stormed out of the building, shouting back as he went. "Tell Ebonflak that he's in charge of security here on the ground. Kill him if he tries anything."

He climbed up the gantry into the Gilvader's cockpit, ramming the connectors into the back of his neck. "You will not stop me." He said to himself as the Gilvader's systems came online. "I will destroy you now." The massive black Zoid leaped into the air, its wings beating as it went. He could fee the Gilvader's mind through the link. It knew what it was facing, and was hungry with anticipation, the thought of the battle to come filling its mind.

The final Gravity Ptera desperately tried to evade its pursuers, but to no avail. Reven and Z-One hammered their triggers, filling the enemy Zoid with weapons fire. Damaged and reeling, the enemy Zoid simply exploded in mid-air. "All right!" Reven shouted. "Score another one for me!"

"Hey I was shooting him too!" Z-One added. "We can't say who's shot finished him off. It's a shared kill."

"Shut up, Z-One." She said. "I'm the boss and you're the minion. So what I say-"

Before she could finish, a huge black shape surged between the pair of them, sending their Zoids flailing around in the air. Wrestling with the controls, Reven managed to stabilize her Zoid then get a good look at the culprit. It was the Gilvader, speeding straight towards the Whale King. "What the-" She said, then looked at it. "Z-One! Get after it!"

She opened up the Storm Sworder's throttle, closing the distance to the Gilvader. "I'll get you now." She said. "We don't need any stupid Deathsaurer." She lined the massive Zoid up in her sights. That big and at this range, she thought. I can't miss. She squeezed the trigger and opened fire, the shots flying straight at the enemy Zoid, only to deflect away at the last second. "What the?"

The Gilvader's response was equally as unexpected. Flames erupted form several ports on its rear, boosting its speed even further. The massive black dragon Zoid sped away form the Storm Sworder, leaving Reven behind. "No way!" She shouted, opening up the throttle to full. The Storm Sworder surged ahead but, much to her surprise, the Gilvader was still accelerating, leaving her behind.

"Reven to Havoc!" She shouted into the communicator. "The Gilvader is heading straight for you!"

"All hands to battle stations! We are under attack, repeat we are under attack!" Tweedle's voice shouted through the PA system. Waiting in her Shield Liger's cockpit, Sandra realised what must have happened. The Gilvader was coming after them directly. Tool.

"First wave, be ready to move out the instant we hit the ground!" Sandra had appointed herself the commander of the first wave of ground forces, consisting of their fast-moving Zoids. Her Liger, Rick's Wolf, the two A-X tigers and now Rose's Blade Liger. It struck her that she didn't trust most of her team's members. But then, she didn't have much of a choice.

"'Hit the ground' you said. What happened to 'land'?" Rick asked.

"Shut up you big tool." She snarled. "The big felling black menace to society is coming straight for us!"

"Sounds good."

She felt the ship moving as it entered a dive. Captain Tweedle was probably trying to evade the Gilvader, she thought. Probably futile, but it might just keep us alive a little longer. Might.

Glancing around, she looked back at the second wave troops. Lead by Sel, they consisted of all their large and heavy Zoids. The idea was that Sandra's fast movers break up their formations, then Sel's assault troops would flatten them. Of course, this was all dependant on them getting down in one piece.

This could be a problem, she thought. She'd already been on this ship when it was attacked by the Gilvader once before. She had no desire to do the same again.

The Whale King dived towards the ground level, slipping in amongst the peaks and rocky outcroppings that dominated the local landscape. Its gunners opened fire on the Gilvader, their shots filling the air around it without actually doing anything to it. Pathetic, thought De Lyon. All they're doing is delaying the inevitable.

He bought the Gilvader around, looping it overhead before coming back at the ship from above and behind. Once again the gunners opened up, their shots almost laughably ineffective. He had to admire the captain's bravery. However. He was risking his ship by taking it through the narrow canyons, but it would afford him a measure of safety from the Gilvader's attacks. But not enough.

The black Zoid dived at the Whale King, opening fire on it as it went. Shots tore into its hull, tearing huge holes in its structure. Black smoke billowed out form across its body as she ship began to sink lower into the canyon. But, much to his surprise, it remained airborne and continued on its course. They were either very determined, he thought, or very stupid. Probably the latter.

The Gilvader dived at the Whale King to finish it off. Suddenly, its proximity sensors went off, warning it of another Zoid approaching. Pulling away, he was taken by surprise as a Storm Sworder came barreling straight at the Gilvader. He veered the Gilvader to one side, but not before the Storm Sworder could strike. The silver Zoid's wing blade sliced into the Gilvadrer's side, tearing a cut across its flank. It wasn't anything serious, but it was enough to get his attention.

Ignoring the Whale King for the moment, he bought the Gilvader around to chase the Storm Sworder that had dared to strike him. He could feel the Gilvader's rage though their link. It was the first time in centuries that it had been damaged in combat, and it wasn't happy about it. The black Zoid set off after the Storm Sworder, accelerating to catch up with it, the Whale King all but forgotten.

Despite the severe damage, the Whale king had managed to remain airborne. While it was losing altitude, it was more of a gradual descent then an out and out plummeting towards the earth, which was good enough. The Whale King was designed to survive such a landing. Taking off again would be a different matter, of course.

Passing over a hill closer then the captain would have liked, the Whale King's crew spotted the launch site from the air. At the same time, the enemy Zoid force spotted it and responded, opening fore. Shots tore into the whale King's hull, capaitalising the damage done by the Gilvader.

On the bridge, sirens wailed as systems shut down or were blown up. The Whale King's speed and altitude plummeted as the ship began an inexorable descent to the cold, hard earth below. "All hands!" Captain Tweedle shouted into the comma system. "Brace for impact!" Then, in a true display of courage, he dived behind his chair and cowered in a tiny little ball.

The Whale King less crashed as it flopped. It ploughed into the ground, skidding along digging up a furrow in the rock as it went. Several enemy Zoids, still firing at it, were ploughed under as the massive ship continued on its course before eventually coming to a stop. For a moment, everything was still. Then the Whale King's front ramp opened, the first wave of Zoids emerging.

Sandra's Shield Liger and Rose's Blade Liger lead the charge with their shields up, both simply smashing into the enemy lines, ramming through several smaller Zoids as they went. Behind them, the two Saber Tigers and the Command Wolf charged at the enemy lines, firing their cannons into the enemy formations as they moved.

Looking from her cockpit, Sandra could see the massive form of the core behind the enemy lines. It had undergone something of a metamorphosis, four bulky engines having been fused to its side. Sandra figured that it had to be controlled from somewhere, probably a fixed-site control center. They needed to get through to it and take it out before the core could launch, or else they would have lost already. It was their true objective; taking out the Gilvader was secondary.

Sandra's Liger batted a Demantis aside, then dropped its shield and opened up with the twin beam cannons. A Gravity Saix was struck by the two cannons, tearing its sword-missile free from the right shoulder. Sandra mentally reminded herself to thank Rick for the cannons. He couldn't have gotten them at a better time, she added.

The enemy force regrouped and tried to push back into Sandra's squad, only to meet the second wave. Sel and her troops, as well as Anna, Stuart, Felix and Pants with their heavyweight Zoids opened fire on the enemy formations, tearing into their lines. The enemy Attack and Gravity Zoids wavered, then broke, falling back towards the launch pad.

Interesting, Sandra thought. They're remote controlled units that have so far shown a remarkable lack of concern for their own safety. So why are they running? She glanced over at the command center, and then realsed why.

A second Zoid force was waiting for them closer to the launchpad. Sandra could make out two different Iron Kongs, a Zoidzilla, a Saber and a Claw amongst their ranks, as well as what appeared to be a full squad of Cannon Ceasers. And in the middle of them was the modified Godkaiser she recongised from the battle at Lazwegaz. The enemy were consolidating their ranks, and had bought out the heavy artillery. Great. Tool.

A Storm Tiger, Dragonfly and several Black Reddlers swooped down out of seemingly nowhere, raking their Zoids with fire. Sandra and Rose took most of the attack on their shields, before firing back with their back weapons. A stream of cannon fire from the Redhorn and Darkhorn joined them, the enemy pilots skillfully evading the shots. "Damn it, Reven!" She shouted into the communicator. "Where the hell are you?"

"I'm a bit busy at the moment!" She shouted back. "I've got this damned Gilvader trying to kill me!"

Sandra glanced back at the Whale King. For the moment it was resting on the ground, smoke billowing from the numerous holes in its hull. more worryingly, there was no sing of the Deathsautrer. "Pants!" She shouted while dodging fire. "Have you activated the Deathsaurer yet?"

"Yes I did!" He called back.

"Then where the hell is it?"

The Storm Sworder banked and dived away from the Gilvader, twin beams of energy cutting through the space that the silver Zoid had previously occupied. Cursing the skill of the enemy pilot, De Lyon dived after it, then abruptly pulled away as the Storm Sworder turned into a narrow ravine between two peaks. Very clever, he thought. The Storm Sworder was smaller and far more agile then the Gilvader. As a consequence, it could use the terrain to its advantage.

"Major, this is Sturm." A voice in his ear caught his attention for a moment.

"What is it?" He snapped.

"The enemy have landed their troops and are attacking the site." Sturm explained. "They've broken through the first wave of defenders, but the launch itself is in no immediate danger."

"Fast-track the launch." He snapped back. "And take out their Whale King. Cut off their retreat."

"Yes sir." He replied.

Closing the link, De Lyon turned back to the Storm Sworder as it dashed out of the ravine, trying desperately to escape. He bought the massive Zoid around to chase it. This time, it would not escape.

Sel squeezed the trigger on the main weapons systems as her Darkhorn charged at the enemy formation. Running parallel to a Gravity Saurer in order to avoid its fire, she slewed the cannon around and raked its flanks with shots. No sooner was it down then she bought the cannon around to the other side, spraying a pair of Diloforce with fire before they could strike.

The Darkhorn stopped short as a group of various attack Zoids began an advance towards their lines. Looking over the small Zoids, she could see that none of them were piloted. Veering off to one side, she opened fire on the group, spraying them with fire. Before they could react, a volley of shots rained down on that formation, damaging or disabling a number of them and breaking a hole in the front line.

"Boom, baby, boom!" Stuart announced excitedly over the PA system after seeing the results of his attack.

"There's a breach in their lines!" She shouted. "Move in! Concentrate your attack there and try to break through!"

Matt's Deadborder stomped forwards, firing its gravity cannons as it went. The shots blasted into the enemy ranks, flattening several more Zoids with the force of their blasts. A lone Guntiger, damaged form the attacks but still functioning leapt at the Dark Zoid, only to be battered aside. The Deadborder turned towards it, snarling as it went, then snapped at the smaller Zoid with its armoured jaws. Caught by one of its legs, the Guntiger was lifted into the air then thrown aside.

Bob and Bekka's Heldignners moved in, saturating the enemy front lines with fire from their cannons, further expanding the holes torn by the attacks. Behind them, Alex provided long-range cover fire, helping to break up large formations. Stuart's Dibison charged forwards, bypassing them and smashed straight through the enemy front lines, Attack Zoids being smashed aside by the horns or crushed underfoot.

"We've got a clear run through to their main force!" Sel shouted over the comms system. "Sandra, we're going straight for us. Cover our flanks."

"Right!" Sandra shouted. "You know what, this genuinely seems to be working."

"Surprised?" Sel replied.

"Probably." Sandra said. "I think I owe you an apology."

"Don't worry about-" Sel began, then noticed something. One of the Iron Kongs, a silver and yellow one, was launching its twin back-mounted long-range missiles. "Everyone, spread out! Incoming missile fire!"

To her surprise, however, the two missiles went straight over their formation. Instead, they slammed into the Whale King's hulk, blasting the ship's midsection apart. One of the engines, the same one Pants had patched, explode in a brilliant fireball that engulfed much of the Whale King. Turning back to the front, she could see that the enemy Zoid force were now charging straight at them.

Bringing the Darkhorn around, she opened fire at the gold, red and black Iron Kong that was leading the charge. The enemy Zoid fired the boosters on its backpack, leaping out of her way and then coming down right in front of her. Raising a fist to strike, it was battered by a volley of shots from Matt's Deadborder.

The enemy Zoid turned, firing the missiles mounted in its shoulder pod. The Deadborder weathered the hits, then replied with its own chest mounted arsenal, most of the shots bouncing off the Iron Kong's armored chest. Sel capitalised on the attack, opening up with the beam gattling on the Kong's flank, to much more noticeable effect. Realising he was outgunned for the moment, the enemy pilot leaped away again.

"Why did they break formation?" Matt asked. "They were better off letting us come to them. Unless..."

Before Sel could reply, there was a distant rumble and she could feel the ground shaking underneath her Zoid's feet. Looking around, she could see several plumes of smoke coming from the base of the core-ship, specifically form the four huge engines lashed to its hull. Then she realised what they were doing.

"Magyari to all units!" She shouted over the communicator. "Break away! Repeat break away! Get as far from the core as possible! Now!"

"Sir, we are ready for launch." Sturm said over the communicator. "The enemy have broken through our front lines, but we have disabled their transport. They are currently trying to evacuate the launch site."

"Good." He replied. "I will be there shortly."

He closed the link, then concentrated, issuing a new command to the Zoids remaining under his control. They were to try to block off as many of the attackers as possible form escaping. He didn't care now how many of them may be incinerated when the ship launched; if any of the attackers were destroyed with them it was worth it. Ignoring the storm Sworder for the moment, he opened up the Gilvader's throttle. The huge Zoid sped away, leaving its attacker behind.

This was it, he thought. This was what he was waiting for.

On the ground, it was chaos.

The steady charge of the enemy Zoids had turned into a stampede as they tried to get away from the immanent launch. Sandra figured that the Zoids in the back row were manned and their crews were aware of what was about to happen. On the other hand, the Gravity and Attack Zoids were clearly being remote controlled and, much to her dismay, were being used to keep her forces contained. We get fried in the launch, then what's left will be easy meat for their counterattack.

And I'm not going to let that happen

"Rose, you're with me!" She shouted into the communicator.

"What is it?" The red-haired pilot shouted back. Sandra didn't like having to rely on her, but this was an exceptional situation.

"We're going to try to get everyone out of this!" She yelled. "Charge straight at the enemy, shields up! We'll clear a path for everyone else."

Rose smiled. "I like it." Her Blade Liger turned around and, activating its shield, charged straight at the enemy formation. Sandra followed, trying to keep up with the faster Zoid. "I can see why Sel speaks so highly of you."

Not sure what to make of that, Sandra followed up Rose's charge, Spud's own shield up. For a moment, her Zoid was equal to Rose's grey and silver one. Then, the Blade Liger deployed its boosters and, much to her surprise, the side blades and charged straight at an enemy formation, plowing into them like a lawnmower on deep grass.

"Well, I can't fault her enthusiasm." Sandra muttered. Following behind, she tried to widen the path. Battering aside several attack Zoids, she was confronted by a lone Strikezilla. Her Liger leaped, smashing straight into the enemy Zoid, knocking it aside. Before she could continue, her status board flashed up with a red shield overheat warning. Shutting down the shield for the moment, she turned back to the Strikezilla and opened fire with the twin beam cannons. The enemy Zoid staggered in place, but recovered enough to charge again. Twisting the controls, Sandra veered to one side then peppered it with the back cannons.

The Strikezilla staggered, then collapsed as a burst of weapons fire tore up its flank and hips. Sandra turned to see the source of the attack, and was greeted with the rear of Rose's Liger, the beam gattling mounted on the backplate smoking. "Oh, sorry." She began with purely mock regret in her voice. "Did I miss one?"

Damn her.

In the cockpit of her Liger, Rose couldn't help but smile. The immanent launch of the core aside, this was actually turning out a lot better then she'd thought it would. She'd been plowing her way through enemy Zoids with so far little more then a scratch. Of course, what happened afterwards was anyone's guess. She was already trying to figure out scenarios for preventing the core's launch, but none of them were viable. Still, somebody should be able to appreciate this.

She took the noteputer from around her neck and plugged it into a port under the Liger's control panel. "Hey, Slaughter." She began. "I've hooked you up to my Liger's sensory systems. It's only one-way, but I thought you might like to see this." The Liger turned back to face the core, watching as the rest of Sel's force passed by it.

"That's the core." He began.

"Yep. Fused with the ruins of the ship that first bought us to this planet." Rose replied. "And, as you can see, it's about to launch."

A huge black shape passed overhead. Looking up, Sel could see the Gilvader, descending towards the core, slowly circling it. She realised that it wasn't trying to attack them, but rather ward them away form the core. "The Gilvader." Slaughter spoke. "And my core. Its almost as if you humans are trying to enact my plans without me. Very creative."

"We're like that." She jokingly added. "Besides, its not like you were doing anything with it."

"Booster ignition sequence complete"

"All engines functioning at full output"

"Airspace around the launch trajectory is clear."

"Green light on all systems."

The voices ran out across the control center. Sturm looked at the various technicians and monitors, all confirming what he was hearing. "Sturm to De Lyon." He spoke into a communicator. "We are go for launch."

"Excellent." He replied, a flat, almost mechanical edge to his voice. "Proceed."

The ground underneath Sel's Darkhorn shook as it run, almost throwing her off. She skidded the dark Zoid to a halt, trying to get her bearings and regain her footing. Looking around, she tried to figure what was going on. Zoids, both friendly and hostile thundered away from the launch site in a confused mass of moving equipment.

Then she saw something in one of the auxiliary monitors. Turning the Zoid, she realised what it was.

The core ship rose form the dull grey surface, propelled on four enormous pillars of fire erupting from the Sovetski Soyuz's converted engines. As she watched it, it began to climb, leaving the ground behind and ending any chance they had of stopping it.

"No..." She began. "No! I won't let it happen again!" Turning the Darkhorn around, she charged back towards the launch, heading towards the inferno that was raging on the improvised launch pad.

"Captain!" Matt shouted. "Stop!"

"I have to stop it!" She yelled back. Despite the shaking ground and the ash and debris in the air, she tried to maintain a steady aim on the vehicle. Squeezing the trigger, she unloaded everything she had into the escaping ship. Her shots either fell short or seemed to do nothing to it. Despite that, she knew she had to keep trying.

Matt's Deadborder thundered to a halt next to her Zoid, adding its own firepower to the assault. For the briefest of instants, it looked like one of their shots had doe it, as the core seemed to waver in the air. Then, it continued on as if nothing had happened. The pair of them continued to fire, even though it was hopelessly out of range.

"It's over." Sel muttered.

And then a brilliant blue and white beam came out of seemingly nowhere, a brilliant slash across the twilight sky. It sliced straight into the side of the launch vehicle, slicing its way through the structure in a wide arc. The effect was nothing short of catastrophic.

The body of the ship was sliced in half. The lower section suddenly veered off course, unbalanced by one of the boosters breaking away form the body and continuing on its own path. It fell, twisting sideways as it went, while the upper half flipped over and began to plummet. As the three large sections, and innumerable other ones began to fall to the earth, a single overriding thought filled Sel's head.

"RUN!"

For the briefest of instants, De Lyon was smiling. The core was airborne and on its way to orbit. Once it was there, nobody would be able to stop it. Despite all their efforts, none of those on the ground would be able to prevent his victory. It was a moment to savor.

Then a brilliant blue beam had come out of seemingly nowhere and sliced the core in half before it could escape. Now the core and all its irreplaceable technology were falling back towards the planet, little more then burning scrap metal. With it went all his plans.

He looked across the battlefield to see what it was that could have done this to him. His eyes fell upon a single shape on the far side. A solitary Zoid emerged form the burning wreckage of the Whale King, its massive form towering over the other Zoids on the battlefield. In the flames, its blood red colour scheme gave it a sinister, evil look.

A part of the GIlvader's consciousness recognised this particular Zoid and what it was. He didn't care for that, however. All he wanted now was vengeance for what it had just done.

He sent out a command to the remaining Zoids under his control. They were to attack the intruders and fight until either they or their opponents were destroyed. All except the Deathsaurer. That was his.

In the cockpit of the Bloody Deathsaurer, Vic stared at the Gilvader as it hung above the battlefield. Her red eyes fixed upon the enemy Zoid, ignoring all else around her. She slowly stepped forwards, her eyes fixed on the Gilvader as a chunk of burning ship fell out of the sky and collapsed behind it, silhouetting it against the flames.

"The god of the black flames." She began. "For what you have done to me, you must die."

On the ground, Sandra watched in awe as the Deathsaurer literally shot the core ship out of the sky. Vic had doe it, she thought. For a moment, she allowed herself to think that it was over, then realised that this was clearly not the case. The Gilvader still hung in the air over the battlefield, glaring at the Deathsaurer. She figured that its pilot was probably not that happy about what had just happened.

Several shots hit the Shield Liger, shaking her in the cockpit. Turning around, she could see that the enemy Zoids, both manned and unmanned were charging at her forces. Putting her shield up, she turned and ran straight at the enemy forces.

"Listen up, people!" She shouted into the communicator. "The enemy may be trying an attack on the Deathsaurer. Our job is to hold them off and protect it until it can destroy the Gilvader." There was a chorus of affirmative replies through the communicator.

Turning back to the enemy force, she dropped the shield and opened fire with the beam cannons. Her shots struck an approaching Evil Scorpion, blasting it aside. Leaving it for the moment, she leaped over its body and swatted at another Strikezilla, carving out a chunk of its side with the claws. The Strikezilla's pilot recovered quickly and returned fire, the shots carving up more armour on the Liger's flanks.

These guys are good, she thought. Sel had said the Gilvader pilot was one of her people. Are these more of them?

Shepherd's black and red Saber Tiger leaped overhead, propelled by its flight pack, firing its missile pod as it went. The missiles rained down on the enemy force, including the Strikezilla, inflicting severe damage. Seeing her chance, Sandra opened fire with the impact cannon, finishing off the enemy Zoid.

"Sandra!" Rick shouted. "On your right!"

Glancing around, she could see a yellow Gul Tiger on her flank. Opening up the throttle, she leaped out of its way just as it opened fire with its particle cannon. While nowhere near as powerful as the one on the Deathsaurer, it was still enough to severely damage or cripple her Zoid. She returned fire, the Gultiger leaping into the air and taking flight before she could take it out. If the Zoid wasn't so deadly, the sight of it hanging off its lift fans would be almost comical.

Rick's Command Wolf sprinted into view, its dual cannons firing as it went. The Gul Tiger weaved around the shots, unable to get a good shot at the Wolf in return, but holding his attention good enough. A small Saberlion charged at the wolf from behind, leaping at its unprotected flank. Rick must have seen it at the last second, as he turned the Wolf away from the attack. The Saberlion leaped away, its blades carving a deep gash in the Wolf's side.

The Saberlion turned for another strike, only to be blasted aside by a burst of cannon fire. Looking around, Sandra could see a black and green Heldigunner nearby, its weapons barrels smoking.

He'll be fine, she thought. She'd seen Rick and Bekka fight alongside each other before. The two of them seemed to be rather good at looking after each other in battle. Certainly good enough for her to not have to worry about watching Rick's back for a while.

Searching around, she spied the Gultiger again. The bright yellow Zoid was about to put down again for another shot. She opened fire with her twin cannons. One of the beams went wide but the other one struck the lift unit, blasting one of the fans apart. The Gultiger plummeted the last meter or so to the ground, but recovered rather quickly.

"I'm not giving you another chance, you tool!" She shouted, and charged at the other Zoid, firing her back canons. The Gultiger responded quickly, breaking into a high-speed run to evade her. Even though she was tying to concentrate on putting it down, she found the Gultiger's movements somewhat bizarre and almost amusing to watch. The Short-legged Zoid had been built in a permanent "stalking" posture, and rode rather low to the ground. Its legs had an almost accordion-like design that gave it a rather unusual run.

She was about to take off after it again, when another brilliant blue beam filled the sky. She looked up to see the Deathsaurer's particle beam shot fly straight at the Gilvader. For a moment she thought it was all over. Instead, the beam deflected away from the Gilvader's wings, instead impaling one of the A-X whale kings. The ship hung in the air for a moment and then exploded into a brilliant fireball.

The Gilvader hovered in he air for a moment, almost as if it was gloating in its invulnerability. Then it dived at the Deathsaurer, opening fire at its opponent. The shots dug deep scars in the Deathsaurer's armour, but the monstrous Zoid remained standing. In reply, it fired again, the brilliant blue beam filling the air. This time the Gilvader turned away form the shot. The Deathsaurer tried to follow it, but found the enemy Zoid too fast moving.

"What the felling hell is it going to take to stop this thing?" She asked herself.

"The Gilvader and the Deathsaurer facing each other." Slaughter began. "You were right to show me this battle, human."

"Glad you're enjoying the show." Rose replied as she watched, fascinated by the events unfolding. "Just a pity we got the front row seats."

John's Saber Tiger leaped over another rank of enemy Zoids, arriving behind their front line. A single Cannon Caesar challenged him as soon as he put down, but before it could strike, it hit by a heavy beam cannon shot. Glancing back, he could see Taro's Saber Tiger in position to support him, just as he'd planned it.

Not giving the Cannon Caesar any time to recover, his Saber Tiger leaped forwards and dug its fangs into the Zoid's neck. The Enemy Zoid roared in pain and tried to pry itself away form the Zoid, but John merely dig the fangs in further, then fired the impact cannon into the Zoids body at point-blank range. Releasing the enemy Zoid, it collapsed to the ground.

Looking around, he spotted another potential opponent. It was similar in design to the Cannon Caesar he'd just defeated, but with a different colour scheme and additional weapons systems. He recongnised it as being Ebonflak's Godkaiser, now being controlled by an enemy pilot. Presumably then, his leader and the other high-ranking A-X officers were being held somewhere around here. We'll see about that, he thought. "Watanabe! I'm going after the Godkaiser. Give me cover, now!"

"Hai, kuroso-sha!" He shouted back. A shot from the Saber Tiger's heavy beam cannon struck the enemy Zoid, shearing off one of the large pods mounted on its knees and then digging into the torso armour. John knew that they still hadn't gotten a chance to repair the e-shield that Radnor installed, which meant that the Zoid was a lot less capable then it could have been. Perfect.

He charged at the enemy Zoid, opening fire with the Saber's weapons, scoring numerous hits on the Zoid's flank. The Damaged Godkaiser turned and fired back at him with the back-mounted heavy cannons. He tried to dodge the shot, but wasn't completely successful, his Saber being thrown to one side.

"So you seek to strike down your own leader." Ebonflak's voice came from the Godkaiser's PA system. "That makes you a traitor to our cause. And all traitors must be eliminated."

"My lord," he began as the Saber Tiger struggled back to its feet. "I wasn't aware that you were piloting that Zoid. Had I known I-"

He was interrupted by another blast going overhead, this time from the Deathsaurer. The beam tried to track the Gilvader's flight path, but lagged behind and instead ended up neatly slicing the A-X hammer Kaiser in half. "See what you and your allies have done?" Ebonflak began. "I was posed to use this impudent outsider's technology for the fulfillment of our own glorious cause. Now, as you can see, thanks to the actions of you and your so called allies, not only is that plan in ruins but our own resources are being decimated." A portion of the Hammer Kaiser crashed to the ground nearby as if to emphasise the point.

The Godkaiser fired again, hitting the Greatsaber again. John was shaken around in the cockpit, and struggled to keep the Zoid on its feet. Checking his status board, he could see numerous red lights appearing. "Oh, and don't expect Taro to help you out. He has already been dealt with."

Looking back over his shoulder, he could see that D'Allevera's Iron Kong had leaped over to where the Saber Tiger had been. The Tiger was currently running and trying to evade the larger Zoid. So far, he was succeeding. The only question was, for how long.

Trying to keep the Zoid functioning, he charged forwards at the Godkaiser, firing the impact cannon and several of the smaller, forward facing cannons. The shots hit the Godkaiser, staggering it but not doing much damage. The Godkaiser replied with a volley of fire from its secondary cannons, tearing up armour and equipment on the Zoid's back. Gritting his teeth, Shepherd checked the status board. Good. The Flight system was still working. Time for his plan.

He leaped at the Godkaiser, as if he was going to attack it. Before striking, however, he activated the flight system and flew over the other Zoid, instead coming down a fair distance away. The Godkaiser started to turn to face him, but then stopped. Another Zoid was approaching, drawing its attention.

Looking over to it, Shepherd could see that it was Black's Deadborder. It looked to be a little ragged from the fighting, but it seemed to be doing better the many other Zoids. Certainly it looked like it could handle the Godkaiser or, at the very least, keep it busy. He flipped open his comms system "Taro, what's your status."

"I have momentarily evaded the enemy Kong." Taro replied.

"Good." He said. "We're getting out of here while the others are distracted."

"But what about Lord Ebonflak and the other members of the command staff?"

"Never mind." He said. "They're beyond our help now. For the moment, we are all that remains of A-X. It is our duty to carry on for them." Which wasn't quite the truth, but good enough for the moment.

"Hai!" He replied.

John looked back at the Deadborder and Godkaiser, then over to the burning wreckage of the core ship. With the immediate threat to the world over and A-X effectively destroyed, there were plenty of opportunities for someone like him. And this was his chance to seize them. The Greatsaber sprinted away, Taro's red Saber Tiger joining it.

The Deadborder and Godkaiser circled each other for a moment, the two Zoids bellowing at each other, as if each was trying to intimidate the other into backing down. Matt glared at the enemy Zoid, recongising it as the one piloted by the A-X commander back at Lazwegaz. He wondered who was piloting it now, whether it was one of De Lyon's men or some member of A-X, possibly even their commander again. Certainly it was acting too rational to be one of the Zoids controlled by the Gilvader.

The Godkaiser lunged forwards, its head horn lowered to impale the Deadborder. Matt swerved the Zoid out of the way, opening fire with the Deadborder's secondary armament as he went. The shots dug into the Godkaiser's armour but, as far as he could tell, didn't do any serious damage. The enemy Zoid recovered, its mobility hampered by its unusual leg construction and turned to face him again.

He quickly tried to asses the situation. In terms of speed, we're very close. He's more capable in close combat, and I have more long-range fire. Save for those two large cannons, that is. However, I'm a little more agile, especially close in... Both of us have taken a degree of combat damage, which may change things. I'm not sure how well he's functioning.

He surged forwards again, firing the Deadborder's twin beam cannons at the same time as the Godkaiser opened up with its back canons. The Deadborder staggered, a huge chunk gouged out of the armour on its flanks, while the Godkaiser soaked up his shots. What is that thing carrying?

The GodKaiser advanced again, firing its head cannon while advancing. The Deadborder took several hits, but not enough to slow it down. Stepping to one side, he was caught by surprise by the Godkaiser's claws extending form their forearm housing and slicing into the Deadboder's damaged flank.

Several red damage lights came on across the board as Matt struggled to keep the Zoid under control. He could feel its rage and anger building in his mind, trying to take control of him. No, he thought. Putting it aside, he dug the Deadborder's own claws into the Godkaiser's amour in an effort to dislodge himself. The Godkaiser, holding the advantage, reared back and then stabbed the Deadborder through the side with its head-mounted horn. Releasing the Deadborder from its claws, it tossed it aside with a combination of claws and horn.

The Deadborder staggered and then collapsed, Matt fighting it all the way down. Inside the cockpit, the normal green of the sensory systems was mixed with a lot of red form the damage boards. More then he would have liked. Looking up, he could see the Godkaiser standing over him, ready to finish him off. The Deadborder began to stir, clearly not wanting to fall like this, but it he knew it wasn't going to be enough before the Godkaiser could strike.

"Leave him alone."

The Godkaiser stopped its advance, turning its head in away form the Deadborder. Matt wondered what it was that had caught its attention, when he recongised the voice. "Surrender now, and I won't harm you. Attack him again, and you will regret it." He remembered that. It was exactly what he had said to Grant when her Darkhorn fell before his Mammoth.

"You impudent fool." The Godkaiser's pilot replied. "I will not surrender to the likes of you."

"Very well."

The Godkaiser was staggered by a volley of cannon fire that carved up the armour around its flank and hip. Matt knew what was coming next as the enemy Zoid struggled to move, its right leg badly damaged in the assault. Before it could advance, however, Sel's Darkhorn smashed into its side, digging into its damaged hip and lifting it off the ground. The dark Zoid bought its head up, the horn tearing through vital structures, ripping them free form the body. The Godkaiser collapsed in its side, its right leg a twisted mess of destroyed structures and motors.

"Matt, can you hear me?" He heard Sel's voice over the communicator. It was filled with concern, not the usual rage and anger of someone being controlled by their Zoid. Checking the monitor, he could see that her eyes were her usual deep brown. So she did it, he thought. She's managed to beat it.

"I'm... I'm fine, I think." He replied. "My Zoid... it's seen better days." As if to prove him wrong, the Deadborder slowly lifted itself up, managing to regain its footing. It turned to glare at the Darkhorn, and then the downed Zoid. "But I think I can continue."

Sel nodded. "Good." The Darkhorn turned to face the Deathsaurer. "Because I feel that this may not be over by a long way."

The Gilvader flew through another maelstrom of fire from the Deathsaurer, and then replied with its full arsenal. The hits shook the Deathsaurer, stripping away armour and tearing into vital systems. In the cockpit, red systems waning lights came on across the board. Vic snared, as if she could feel the Zoid's pain.

She could see the Gilvader ahead of her, hanging in the air as if it was taunting her. She should have been able to destroy it utterly, making it pay for what it had done to her. Instead, it was shrugging off all that she had given it, almost mocking her in its defiance of her efforts. And then it would move in and finish her off. She would die at its hands for a second time.

No, she thought. She wouldn't let it.

"I will not let you beat me." She said. The Deathsaurer regained its footing, slowly marching forward. "I will destroy you for what you did to me. For that, you will burn."

There was a sudden spike of pain form her cybernetic implant as the Deathsaurer reached straight into her mind. A voice spoke to her, directly inside her head. We can destroy it, the voice spoke. Give yourself to me. Use your mind. Let your rage and hatred fuel you.

"I..." She began through gritted teeth. "I... will... destroy... you!"

The linkage between them crackled with power as the two minds met and merged, combining in a way that neither the cybernetic system's designers, or the Deathsaurer's creators had never conceived. Victoria Hagen and the Deathsaurer ceased to exist, their minds now unified into a single entity with only one intention. To destroy.

Rick swerved the Command Wolf through a barrage of enemy fire before returning fire with the back cannons. The enemy Saber was hit in the shoulder, the shots digging into the leg's connectors to the torso. It tried to limp away but was hit by a volley of fire from Bekka's Heldigunner, which had been using Rick's Wolf for Cover. The Saber staggered and then collapsed, its right foreleg snapping off form the torso.

"That's one less of them we have to worry about." Rick said, taking a quick breather. "How many more are there to go."

"No Idea." Bekka replied, her Heldigunner looking around for their next target. "Rick, look at the Deathsaurer!"

"Wha?" He turned the Command Wolf's head and spied the massive red Zoid. It was heavily scarred from its duel with the Gilvader, but still standing. However, for some reason, it was standing perfectly still. Then, to his surprise, it jutted its head forward and raised its tail, taking a stance similar to that of a Genosaurer. "I have no idea." He flicked over his commas system. "Hey Pants!"

"What is it?" Pants shouted back. "I'm busy right now!"

"Check out the Deathsaurer." Rick said. "And tell me what the hell it's doing."

"What the..." Pants replied.

As they watched, the Deathsaurer's two maneuvering venires stuck straight into the air. On the back, the missile launcher's cover also opened, fixing into place. Then the top panels along the length of the tail opened, similar to those on a Berserk Fury.

"No..." Pants began. "It can't be."

The jets on the end of the venires extended outwards, growing into long spikes. On the back, the tubes of the missile launcher contracted into the body, leasing a large vent in its place. The claws on the feet extended, digging into the ground.

"Yes!" Pants said. "It's doing it! It's adapting, changing itself without any external aid. It's evolving into a new form on its own! This is it, the ultimate expression of Zoids technology!"

"Can it do that?" Rick asked.

"It is almost a legend, something that is rarely spoken of." Pants said. "Like the Dingle Ball, the legendary ultimate weapon, this Deathsaurer has gained the ability to reconfigure itself as the situation demands! We are seeing the next stage in its evolution! A newer, more powerful Deathsaurer, unlike any Zoid this world has ever seen."

"And Vic is controlling it." Rick added.

"And Vic is-" Pants began. "Oh crap."

"It has changed!" Slaughter said, the synthesised voice suggesting excitement. "The Deathsaurter has exceeded its original design capabilities. It has moved beyond what I created, becoming something new."

"You didn't design it to do that?" Rose asked.

"No." He said. "I'd love to know what you humans have done to it."

"So would I." She said, her voice betraying her curiosity. "So would I."

In the cockpit of the reconfigured Deathsaurer, Vic opened her eyes. She was now one with the Deathsaurer, its mind and the very embodiment of its existence. Her eyes were a deep red, almost the same colour as its body, while red lines, like circuit boards, glowed across her body. She could fell the power of this new body, the evolution of the Deathsaurer that she herself had guided. And now, it would allow her to destroy her enemy, the creature that had caused her so much pain and suffering.

"Burn."

On the back, the intake fan began spinning, faster then it ever had before. Additional intakes located where the missile launcher had been and along the length of the tail and venires also activated, sucking in more power. Much of the Deathsaurer's interior had been reconfigured, a new, smaller but more efficient powerplant making way for an extended charged particle cannon mechanism, larger then the previous one. A glow of energy built up inside the Deathsauer's mouth as the enhanced charged particle cannon prepared to fire.

The Gilvader swooped down on the modified Deathsaurer, charging straight at it. "I don't care what form you take." De Lyon snarled, his voice coloured by an animalistic growl while his eyes were featureless bright red. "It doesn't matter. We will still destroy you for what you have done to us." He triggered the Gilvader's weapons as the Deathsaurer fired.

A massive beam shot out form the Deathsaurer's mouth, striking the Gilvader. For a moment, there was a rippling of air around the Gilvader as the beam distorted, tendrils of energy flailing away from it. Then it suddenly surged, tearing through the Gilvader's right wing, obliterating it.

Screeching in pain, the GIlvader somehow managed to continue on its course, opening fire with its remaining weapons systems. The shots tore into the Deathsaurer's reshaped body, tearing apart armour and systems, blasting one of the modified venires away form the body and sending chunks of debris firing. Despite this, the Deathsaurer remained standing, as if defiant.

Its wing destroyed, the Gilvader began to plummet like a stone, heading straight towards the Deathsaurer. The two Zoids collided with an almighty crash and were sent sprawling across the landscape, chunks of debris flying everywhere. The two titanic Zoids vanished behind a ridge, collapsing into the wreckage of the Whale King.

For a moment, there was silence. The Zoids on both sides simply stopped fighting. The remaining unmanned Zoids simply stopped what they were doing, most of them simply standing there. The others, those with pilots also stopped, their pilots having seen what had happened and realising that, with no core ship or Gilvader, there wasn't much left to fight for.

"Is it over?" Sel asked.

"I... I think so." Sandra replied, nervously. She was more worried about Vic then anything else. She didn't want to think what had happened to her in the collision, or what the Deathsaurer may have done to her already fragile mind. She slowly walked her Zoid towards the crash site, while the others stood there. Around her, the remaining manned enemy Zoids were slowly backing off. They probably want to get while they have the chance, she thought. I don't blame them.

Suddenly, a huge black wing rose out of the wreckage. The Liger stepped back as the Gilvader emerged from the rubble, battered and scarred but still very much operational. It turned towards her, and roared.

"Good call." Rick commented.

"Damn it, I hate my luck." Sandra said. The Liger broke into a run, sprinting back to join the other members of her team. Looking around, she couldn't see any sign of Taro or John. They had probably taken the first opportunity available to run. She couldn't completely blame them.

"What do we do now?" Rick asked. "Vic's out of action and that thing's still going."

"The one thing we can do." Sel said. "We fight." Her Darkhorn charged forwards, firing on the Gilvader as it went. To Sandra's surprise, the shots dug into its armour, clearly damaging the black Zoid, rather then deflecting away as they normally did.

"It's vulnerable!" She shouted. "Everybody! Attack it now!"

Ebonflak climbed from the wreckage of his Godkaiser's cockpit and looked over the battlefield. He could see the grounded Gilvader, one wing missing but otherwise still functional dominating the landscape, with other Zoids arrayed around it. It appeared that things weren't going to according to plan for either De Lyon or himself.

There was a distant thumping sound of a Zoid running, gradually approaching. Looking around, he could see the bright yellow form of Radnor's Gultiger bounding towards him. The Zoid stopped next to him, the cockpit hatch swinging open. "My lord Ebonflak!" Radnor called out from the cockpit. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, Radnor, I am unharmed." He casually replied, then looked over at the wreckage of his Zoid. "However, I am somewhat inconvenienced." There was a roar if jet engines as D'Allevera's Iron Kong leaped over him, landing next to the Gultiger. "I noticed that our enemies are somewhat distracted by the Gilvader."

"Yes my lord." Radnor replied.

"At this juncture, I suggest that a tactical withdrawal may be our best option. Let us return to Pinnacle base and regroup our forces."

"But my lord." Vincent began as he opened the Iron Kong's cockpit, extending one of the Zoid's massive hands for Ebonflak to climb onto. "We don't have any remaining forces. All our troops were committed to this battle."

"A minor setback." He replied as the Iron Kong raised him up to the cockpit. "I am certain that we will soon find a new following of like-minded individuals who see the need to repair the great injustices in this corrupt world." He stepped off the hand and into the Zoid's cockpit, seating himself next to Vince. "But for now, let us depart this place."

At this stage Sandra would have gladly admitted that she didn't have a plan. All she did know was that they had to put down the Gilvader, and it was probably the best to do it as soon as possible. She knew it was vulnerable, unable to fly or deflect their shots. Unfortunately, she also knew that it was carrying enough firepower to kill them all. But she didn't care. She knew what she had to do.

The Liger charged forwards, firing the twin beam cannons from its back. The shots hilt the Gilvader's flank, tearing holes in the armour but not doing too much to it otherwise. As the GIlvader turned to face her, she put the shield up, hoping it would be enough to protect her form its attack. The two bizarre, a flower-like cannon on the Gilvader's back fired, twin energy beams burning straight at the Liger. The shield held for a moment, then buckled, the beams punching through and tearing off one of the beam cannons.

"Those were a gift!" She shouted. "I liked those, you big tool!" The Liger leaped at the Gilvader, roaring as it went, going for its neck. Before she could land the attack, the Gilvader swiped her Zoid with it remaining wing, battering it aside and sending the Zoid sprawling across the landscape.

The Liger hit the ground, Sandra begin thrown around in the cockpit as the Zoid struck and slid across the landscape. Battered and bruised but not seriously injured, she quickly checked the Zoid's status boards. There were a lot of red lights showing, more then she would have liked. "c'mon, Spud." She began. "Pull yourself together." The Liger growled back at her, a mixture of anger and apprehension colouring the neural link. "Get up, you big tool." The Liger stood, shaking itself off once it was up. "Good. Now lets get him."

Sel's Darkhorn charged at the GIlvader next, firing its cannons as it went. A burst from one of the enemy Zoid's gravity cannons went off near her, showering the dark Zoid with debris but not slowing it down. Sel ploughed into the black Zoid's leg, the horn digging into the enemy Zoid's thick armour. The Gilvader bellowed in pain, then lashed out with its clawed talons, battering the Darkhorn aside.

"Sel!" She shouted into the comm link. "Are you-"

"I'm fine." She replied, the Darkhorn rolling back to its feet. "Now let's get that thing."

The Gilvader was rocked by a number of hits to its body and wing. Looking around, Sandra could see Stuart's Dibison standing nearby, its cannons belching fire as they continued their attack. No sooner had he finished, then Anna and Felix's Zoids charged past him, firing at the Gilvader. The huge Zoid turned to face them, firing the cluster of cannons on its neck. A number of thick metal spikes dug into the Rhimos and Redhorn, the pair of them sprawling across the ground as they advanced.

Before they could get up, the Gilvader leaped at the two Zoids. It's right wing slashed across the Redhorn, the buzzsaw concealed within tearing open its flank, before turning towards the Black Rhimos. The smaller Zoid managed to regain its footing before the saw came at it. Twisting the controls, Felix managed to avoid the worst of it, but still lost one of his side guns to the Gilvader's attack. Undeterred, he charged at the Gilvader, only to be swiped aside by a claw and sent crashing into the Redhorn.

"No you don't!" Sandra yelled, opening up on the Gilvader with her impact cannon, trying to distract it from the two downed Zoids. The shots seemed to get its attention, giving her a moment. She turned away from it, firing her turreted beam cannons while running, hoping to distract it. "Rick!" She yelled into the communicator. "Crossover attack pattern screaming fiery burning death! Now!"

"You got it!" Rick called back. His wolf charged past the Liger in the opposite direction, firing its back cannons towards the GIlvader as he went. The idea of this plan was that they both kept moving while firing, hopefully dividing their opponent's attention. Or at least that was the theory; they'd never tried it out in practice.

A volley of fire from the Gravity cannons hit Sandra's Liger, throwing it around and once again sending it crashing to the ground. No sooner was she down then the Gilvader turned its attention to the Command Wolf, opening fire with the needle cannons again. One of the rounds stuck into the Wolf's hip, tripping up Rick's Zoid.

Sandra felt something wet on her forehead, Wiping her arm across it, she could see that it was blood. She looked around the cockpit, noting an awful lot of red lights on the board. "C'mon, Spud." She began ash she pulled on the control stick. "You can do it. Don't die on me now." The Liger staggered, trying to make it back to its feet, only barely making it up before tripping again, and then regaining his footing. A part of her told her this was hopeless, and that there was no way that she could do this. Spud was already almost a wreck, and a lot of the others weren't faring too much better. And another part of her said that she had to.

The Gilvader turned towards Anna's Redhorn again, tearing the cannon off its back with another swipe of the wing. Feeling that the Redhorn was now no longer a threat, it turned its attention towards Stuart's Dibison. A volley of fire form one of its cannons tore up the back of the Zoid, blasting apart a number of the cannons. Matt's Deadborder and the Heldigunners opened fire on the Gilvader, only to be knocked aside by another volley of fire.

She turned Spud towards the Gilvader, breaking into a run only to have him stumble and stagger. More red lights were showing on the board, indicating the damage was worse then she had expected. "Don't give up on me now." She swore. "You can do this."

Before she could continue, she saw Rose's Blade Liger sprint past her own Zoid, charging straight at the Gilvader. "Hey you!" She shouted over the PA system. "I know it's me you want, not the rest of them. So let's settle this now."

The small part of the Gilvader's consciousness that was still major De Lyon saw the grey Zoid come charging at it and recongised the pilot's voice. It remembered her, his subordinate who had upstaged and embarrassed him at every turn, promoting herself while making him look bad. It was her actions that had driven him to this, he thought. It was all her doing.

Turning away form the downed Heldigunners for the moment, the black Zoid charged after the Liger, snarling as it went. Now he would get her, he thought. Now his revenge could be complete.

As Sel watched, the Gilvader broke into a run, chasing after the Liger. Rose had made herself a target for its attentions, she thought. Why? And then she realised. It was to give everyone else a chance. If the Gilvader focused on her, then everyone else had a chance. Sel was surprised. It was the last thing she'd have expected from Rose. Brave, noble and selfless. Something about her had changed, she thought. She could only wonder what.

"Everybody!" Sel shouted across the communicator. "The Gilvader is distracted. Attack now!"

Rose opened the Blade Liger's throttle up to maximum, charging across the landscape straight past the Gilvader. As she expected, the huge Zoid came after her, seemingly ignoring everything else. So some part of De Lyon is still calling the shots in there, she thought. She'd taken the gamble that he'd ignore everything else to go after her. Now all she needed to do was live to exploit that chance.

She veered the Liger to one side, opening fire with the back-mounted beam gattling pod. The shots seared armour from the Gilvader's side, doing very little real damage but at least keeping it focused on her. The black Zoid fired back with its needle cannons, the shots narrowly missing the Liger. Rose yanked it around, changing her course to keep ahead of the enemy Zoid, concentrating on evasion for the moment.

"Hey Slaughter." She began. "Bet you never thought you'd see your creation like this."

"You are insane." He replied. "Why are you doing this? You will get us both destroyed."

"I thought that wouldn't bother you, what with being little more then a few bits of data." She replied as she slewed the Liger to one side. "Or are we suddenly feeling rather mortal all of a sudden?"

Slaughter said nothing. A nearby explosion rocked the Liger, tearing up armour on its flanks. Red lights came on across the status board, indicating damage to the Liger's legs. While not dangerous now, any further damage could prove to be dangerous.

"Come on, Slaughter." She said. "Who wants to live forever anyways?"

Sel watched as a second volley blasted the Blade Liger, sending it sprawling onto its side. The Gilvader wasted no time, charging straight at the downed Zoid. "No you don't!" Sel shouted as her Zoid charged, firing as it went. The shots tore along the Gilvader's back, shredding armour as it went. Next to her, Matt's Deadborder opened fire with its Gravity Cannons, the rounds tearing chunks out of the remaining wing. "Everybody, attack now!" We're not going to get this chance again!"

The Gilvader turned back to face them, its red eyes burning in the darkness of the twilight. It was wounded, battered and grounded, but still capable of fighting back. The two back cannons fired, sweeping shots across the oncoming force. The Dibison and Redhorn were both hit, crashing to the ground with huge chunks torn out of their bodies. Before they could fire again, one of the two cannons was taken out, blasted away from the body by the Deadborder.

A volley of fire from the Gilvader hit her Zoid, throwing it off its charge. It crashed to the ground, sliding along on its side as it went. Struggling with the controls, Sel tried to force her Zoid back to its feet. The Darkhorn struggled, but was unable to rise. She suspected that one of the legs she was resting on was out of action.

"Sel!" Sandra shouted over the comms system. "What's happened?"

"I'm down, probably immobilised." She explained.

"I have a plan." Sandra replied. "Stay right where you are."

Looking around, Sel could see Sandra's Liger charging straight at her Zoid. At the last moment it leaped, using the Darkhron's downed body as a springboard, throwing itself at the Gilvader's head. The Liger smashed its claws against the side of the head, tearing huge gashes in the side of the canopy. The Gilvader replied, striking the Liger with its huge horns then tossing it aside, the Zoid lading next to Sel's Darkhorn.

"Sandra!" She cried out. "Are you-"

"I've been worse." She admitted. "But then, I've been better. I thought I had a chance there. Stupid often seems to work for me."

The Gilvader turned towards the pair of them, looming over their downed Zoids. Before it could strike, however, a shot struck the damaged side of the canopy, shattering the already scarred cockpit cover. A second shot struck the eye on that side, shattering it and leaving the Gilvader howling in pain.

"For what you did to me," An eerie female voice, speaking over their comms system began. "You must die."

Vic lay in the cockpit of her Gunsniper, itself half-buried in the wreckage of the Whale King. She focussed on the Gilvader's head, her green eyes narrowing as she lined up the shot. "You killed me." She began. "You destroyed me. You broke me. Now, I will do the same to you!" She squeezed the trigger, the shot hitting the Gilvader again. The creature bucked and roared, but refused to fall.

"Die!" She shouted as it charged straight at her, taking another round. "Die! Die! Die!" Several more shots hit it. The huge black Zoid roared, rearing up to fire at her. The gravity cannons fired, sending shots straight at her Zoid. "You will not kill me again!" She yelled as she fired.

As Rick watched, the Gilvader reared up and fired, the shots tearing into the wreckage of the Whae King, sending chunks of debris sailing through the air. The huge black Zoid roared, then collapsed to the ground, its legs collapsing, its head falling flat onto the ground.

For a moment, everything was silent. Nobody dared move or say anything, in case the Gilvader suddenly reawakened. Everyone was hoping it was dead, but nobody wanted to say anything, as if even mentioning its name would reawaken it. He shook his head, suddenly realising there was something more important that he had to deal with right away.

"Bekka, how are you doing?" He shouted into the communicator.

"I'm fine." She replied. "My Heldy's a mess though."

"Can it still move?"

"Yeah-"

"Good. Come with me."

Rose stood in the cockpit of her wrecked Blade Liger, looking out over the wreckage spread across the battlefield. "You built them well." She began. "The Deathsaurer and Gilvader, I mean."

"And now they are all gone." He replied. "The Deathsaurer and Gilvader are destroyed, and the Core along with it. My kind have long since vanished from this world, probably never to be seen again. All that remains is a few ruins." He paused. "Human, I ask you do one final thing for me."

"What's that?" She asked.

"Delete me from this computer. I have nothing left to function for now." He said.

"Very well." She replied. She held the noteputer above her head, one finger held over the controls. "Farewell, Slaughter Steelgrave, last of the Starriors."

There was a pause, then she quietly pressed the 'power off' button. "Then again, you're too useful to me for me to just delete you." She casually stuck the noteputer in the side of her pants, between her underwear and her skin. "And don't complain. There are plenty of men who would kill to be where you are now."

The Wolf loped across the battlefield, heading towards the wrecked whale king, the Heldigunner following behind it. Arriving at the wreckage of the Whale King, it stopped, Rick gazing over the mess of collapsed panels and hull sections. He desperately searched around for something that wasn't either the Whale King's original grey hull, or scorched black. There, he thought. There was a small visible patch of blue under the wreckage.

"Dig there!" He shouted, the Wolf indicating towards a section of wreckage with its head.

"Uh, sure." Bekka replied, the Heldigunner crawling over to the section he was indicate. Its claws, designed to dig through rock and metal tore into the collapsed hull sections, throwing them aside. After a few tense, silent minutes, she spoke up. "Rick, I've found something. It's... it's the Gunsniper!"

The Wolf walked over, Rick peering over the Heldignner into the wreckage. He could see the Gunsniper, mostly buried in the rubble, its armour a battered mess and the radar dome snapped clean off. The canopy was cracked but appeared to be intact. He climbed out of the Wolf's cockpit and ran over to the Gunsniper's. Looking around, he found the Zoid's emergency canopy release. Twisting the release latches, he forced the canopy open.

Vic was lying inside, battered and bruised, but apparently alive. "Rick?" She spoke up. "Is that you?" Her voice was weak and uncertain, different form what he was used to hearing from her.

"Its me." He said. "Are you... are you okay?"

"I got it, Rick." She said, weakly. "I killed it." She breathed deeply. There was something different about her, he thought. Something... normal. Maybe it worked, he realised. Maybe confronting the Gilvader was what she needed to do. Sandra was right after all. But then, she often is. He gently helped hero out of the cockpit, putting her down on a flat piece of wreckage next to the cockpit.

"Is she-" Bekka began, walking over next to him.

He nodded. "She's fine. Bruised, battered but fine." He replied.

"Rick!" A voice boomed over a PA System. Turning around, he could see Pants' customised Malder, one of its cannons torn away but the rest of it functional, looming over him. "The danger is over, the Gilvader has been defeated and you are safe." He began. "It's time for us to end this."

"Pants, this is neither the time or the place for this." He replied.

"But it is." He said. "I agreed that I would help everyone get here and deal the Gilvader and all that so I could get my vengeance on you. And now it is time for that vengeance!"

"Oh, okay." he said. "If you insist." Rick walked over to his Command Wolf and climbed back inside, reactivating its systems. One of the legs had a definite limp and the armor was a mess, but he'd fared a lot better then many others. "So let's get this over with."

Sandra walked over to the wreckage, surprised to find Bekka there with Vic. "How is she?" Sandra quietly asked.

"She seems okay." Bekka replied. "She's somewhat bruised, but that's about it. "

"Mentally?" Sandra asked.

"Uh..." She began, trying not to say anything.

"Let me talk to her."

She'd been dreading this. Vic's seemed to have snapped from her encounter with the Gilvader. Connecting her fragile mind to the dominating force of the Deathsaurer couldn't have helped it, then forcing her to fight the Gilvader again wouldn't have made things any better. She only hoped that there was enough of Vic's mind left to forgive her. Sandra knelt down next to Vic. "Vic? It's me, Sandra. I..." She trained off, not sure of what to say. "I'm sorry for forcing you into the Deathsaurer like that and making you pilot it and..." She sighed. "Can you ever forgive me?"

Vc nodded. "You did what you had to." She replied, weakly. "You made me confront my fears. And... And it worked."

"Vic?" She asked. Something was wrong here. "Are you sure-"

"Yes." She smiled. "I fell better then I have in ages."

"Can you stand?" She asked.

"I think so."

Sandra gently helped her to her feet, allowing Vic to lean on her shoulder. "There." She looked out to where the Wolf and Malder were facing each other. "What's going on there?"

"Rick and Pants." Bekka replied. "The final showdown or something."

Sel walked over to the three of them. "Are they still going to fight after all this?"

"Pants insisted." Bekka replied. "And Rick agreed, possibly if just to shut him up for five minutes."

"Just men being stupid." Sandra said.

"Got that right."

Sandra turned to see Z-One standing next to her. "Where did you come from?" She asked. "And where were you and Reven all that time?"

"I thought were keeping the enemy airbornes off our backs." Sel said. "At least, that's what you told me."

"Something like that." He added, casually.

"Shh." Bekka hissed. "They're about to begin."

"Know this much, Rick." Pants said. "After today, regardless of what happens between us here, it will be over."

"I guess that makes sense." Rick says. "So are you ready?"

"I was always ready." Pants replied. "It has been very interesting, both fighting against and alongside you, Rick. But now it must end."

"Whatever." He opened up the Command Wolf's throttle, charging straight at the Malder.

Pants remained in place, lowering the remaining Supercannon to target the command Wolf. There was the deafening roar of the cannon's blast, the recoil sending the Malder flipping over in the air and landing flat on one side. The shot, wildly out of control, sailed up and overhead, blasting apart a random patch of ground.

The Command Wolf casually strolled over to the downed Malder, looking down at the cockpit. "Do you surrender now?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, I guess." He said. "It was an interesting battle, Rick, like all our battles. But, as I said, this was our last." He sighed. "Congratulations, Rick. You are truly the better pilot."

"So..." Sandra began. "Pants defeated himself?"

"I think so." Sel replied, somewhat surprised. "That was... interesting."

"And sort of funny." Vic added. And then she laughed. It wasn't her usual snigger or her loud, manic laugh. It was a simple, pleasant, happy laugh.


	53. Epilogue

Epilogue

Old City, Novo Zemalya

Dark Continent

1200 Hours

The survivors of De Lyon's forces had retreated while they were battling the Gilvader. Nobody wanted to hang around during a battle like that, regardless of the outcome. Nobody had felt like chasing them down; they were all too tired, while their Zoids battered form the conflict and definitely not ready for another battle.

Nobody had wanted to spend the night out on the battlefield. It was cold, barren and desolate, and stank of death. Instead they had formed a makeshift convoy, good Zoids hauling bad, and trudged back to Novo Zemalya. It was the best idea anyone could think of, and better then the alternative.

As they'd gone, Vic had seen something extraordinary. She said she'd seen the Deathsaurer get up on its own and wander off into the distance, as if it wanted to leave everyone else behind. Nobody had said anything; they were still uncertain about Vic, but at the same time there was a certain reluctance to look back at the battlefield, in case they saw the Gilvader coming back to life or similar.

The rest of the trip was long and difficult, their damaged Zoids fighting against the broken terrain along the path from the site back to the city. It was very late when they entered the old city, stepping in through the now destroyed Iron Gates. Lacking a better idea or plan, everyone had just stopped near the derelict Hovercargo and set up camp for the night. It was too late, and everyone was far too tired to do much anything else.

Sandra hadn't gotten much sleep, determined to keep an eye on Vic in case something happened to her, or there were some after effects of her contact with the Deathsaurer. It wasn't until Vic was fast asleep that she'd finally allowed herself to nod off. In the morning, she was embarrassed by the fact that she'd risen later then almost everyone else. Only Reven was still asleep by the time Sandra was up, Z-One assured her that this was perfectly normal.

Someone, possibly Sel, had raised the issue of what they should do next. Rick had suggested that they play baseball. As nobody else had a better idea, they went with that.

A rough diamond field had been marked out in an old park that was now little more then dirt with a few patches of straggly grass. Sel and Sandra had been appointed team captains, and had taken turns at picking their teams from all present. There was an odd number of people, which had resulted in the idea that each innings they swap someone between the two teams. Sel and Sandra both figured that this made little sense, but they'd do it anyway as they couldn't think of anything better.

For reasons best left unknown, Rick had kept a bat and several balls stashed in his Command Wolf's cockpit. Pants had also helped out, apparently having kept several more bats, half a dozen balls, some bases and even a few catchers gloves in his Hovercargo. When asked why, he said that it was because he may need them for some experiment. Or he might just want to play ball every now and then.

It was a good morning for it. By the standards of the Dark Continent, it was warm and bright. Sunlight streamed in through the now-destroyed dome, lighting up the playing field. While neither team was playing to the best they could, everyone was still enjoying themselves. And that's what counted, Rick thought. Or at least, that's what he was going to say when his team got completely trounced.

Pants stood on the plate, bat in hand. On the pitcher's mound (actually just a slightly higher pile of dirt), Vic was waiting, ball in hand. Pants nodded to her, as if to indicate that he was ready for her. She swung around, pitching the ball in a beautiful straight shot that hit Pants right in the forehead, knocking him down.

"Oh gods!" Vic shouted as she ran over to him. "Are you okay there? I didn't hurt you, did i?"

"I've..." Pants groaned. "I've had worse."

Vic nodded nervously. "Thank goodness for that. I was worried there for a minute."

Rick sat back on the battered park bench that was designated for the team's use, Bekka next to him. "Funny, isn't it?" He began. "Vic I mean."

"She seems so... normal." Bekka replied. "What happened?"

"I think Sandra was right." Rick explained. "She confronted her fears and defeated the Gilvader. And it seems to have done her a world of good."

"How so?"

He put his hands behind his head, stretching out. "Vic, no Victoria Hagen was a young, inexperienced soldier. While her unit was on some operation many years ago, she apparently had a run-in with the Gilvader. While she was left physically unharmed, she was traumasised by the encounter. The Vic we knew was the result of that."

"And now?"

"She seems to be happy." Rick said. "Genuinely so. And without maiming anyone in the process."

"Bekka? Is that you?" A female voice came from behind the pair of them. Rick and Bekka turned to see a tall, attractive woman in her forties with shoulder-length red-brown hair and deep brown eyes. She wore a Zemalyan uniform and had a pair of scars on her right cheek that reminded Rick of the facepaint pattern he'd seen on Sel on occasion.

Bekka leapt up and embraced the woman. "Mum!" She shouted, leaving Rick sitting there, blinking in surprise.

"You're alive!" The other woman replied, hugging her. "You're okay, aren't you?"

Bekka nodded. "We all are." She explained. "More or less." Se stepped back for a moment from her mother.

"So what happened?" She asked.

"It's difficult" Bekka began. "I take it you know we took the Deathsaurer?"

She nodded. "And then Captain O'Bannon deserted her post. I assumed that she was either going after the rest of you or joining you."

"Joining us." Bekka explained. "We used the Deathsaurer to defeat the GIlvader - that's the huge, black dragon Zoid that De Lyon was piloting, and shoot down the core before he could launch it and-"

The woman nodded. "Tell me later, Bekka." She said. "Can I ask who all these people are?"

"Oh!" Bekka turned around. "Mum, this is Rick Mortis. He was one of the people who came into the city to help track down the A-X attackers. Rick, this is my mother, Colonel Rachel Cade."

Rick stood, holding out his hand. "I'm honored to meet you." he fumbled out as she shook his hand.

Bekka stood aside for a moment, looking down, shuffling her feet in the dirt. "Mum, I know you don't approve of a lot of the things I've done." She began.

Rick eyed her bare, heavily tattooed arms, then thought of the other ones under her clothes. I can imagine some of them, he thought.

"To say the least." Rachel replied.

"But..." She continued a little nervously. "Rick... Rick and I know each other very well. We've, uh, been together since before he came to Novo Zemalya for the first time." She said. "What I mean to say is that I love him, mum. I love him very much."

She nodded. "I understand, Bekka."

"You do?" She seemed surprised.

"I'd expected something like this to happen when Magyari's unit was first sent out to locate Kandrak." She explained. "In a way, I was hoping you would say something like that."

"You were?"

"Yes. We can't remain isolated inside this city forever. Recent events have shown that sooner or later, someone will discover us and try to do something about us. I think that it's better that we introduce ourselves to the world rather then have them come to us." She looked at Rick. "The fact that you and Rick have this relationship shows me that we're not that different, and a lot less then our leaders would like to have us believe. That tells me that we have a chance, at the very least."

"Thank you, Ms Cade." Rick replied. "It means a lot to me, that is, you supporting us like this."

She eyed Rick. "You were the one who faced down the Deathsaurer when Hagen went out of control, weren't you?"

He gulped nervously, not wanting to think about that particular moment. "Yeah, that was me. I just did what I had to do."

"You are a very, very brave man." She replied. "I admire that. I wish you two all the best for the future, whatever it may bring."

"Thanks." Rick stammered out. "I, uh, we, um-"

"He means to say thank you." Bekka added. "And thanks too, mum. I was worried that, well, you know him being an outsider and you begin how you are and all that-"

"Bekka, we must change and adapt if we are to survive." She said. "I think that you have been heading in the right direction."

"So does that mean you're not angry at me any more?"

"I was never angry at you." She replied. "I didn't approve of a lot of your choices you made-" She eyed Bekka's arms. "But I never was angry at you."

"So what do you think?" Anna asked as she slumped onto a bench.

"I think our team sucks and that baseball isn't my game." Felix replied as he sat next to her.

"I meant, what do you think we should do from here?"

"I don't follow you." He replied, turning to her.

Anna looked over the baseball diamond. "Felix, we've just saved the world form one man's hideous plot to seize absolute power." She explained. "And we've discovered a lost city in the depths of the Dark Continent who's peoples are radically different form anyone else. It's enough to make you think, isn't it?"

"Think what?" Felix asked. He wasn't in a philosophical mood right now.

"We're paid to fight, Felix. We run around in the desert beating people up for other people's benefit. It seems a little pointless when you think about it." She explained.

"Never really thought about it." He replied.

"I'm just saying that there has to be something more to life then just that." She explained. "At least, I'd like to think so."

"Maybe." Felix said. "But it's a pretty good living as it is. There's no real shortage of work at the moment."

"I suppose." She said. "Maybe I'm just getting tired of fighting all the time." She shrugged. "It makes you wonder, though. We were able to pull ourselves together to face a common threat in the form of that UZN Incursion. So why can't we do it in our normal, day to day lives?"

"Who knows?" Felix replied. "Maybe we just don't like each other."

"What are you two going on about?" Reven asked, standing over the pair of them. "In case you hadn't noticed, their team is..." She trailed off, then clapped her hands over her mouth. "Excuse me..." She muttered then ran off.

"She's been doing that all morning." Anna asked. "Wonder what's up with her?"

"No idea." Z-One said as he walked over, a noticeable swagger in his walk. They both glared at him. "What? What?" there was a long silence. "Hey, who's that?" He added in a desperate effort to distract them.

They both turned to see Rick and Bekka talking to a woman wearing a black uniform. "It looks like one of the locals. I thought they were all hiding underground." Anna said.

"Well, my team completely blows goats." Sandra said as she walked over to the stand. "But I think you have a chance."

"I wouldn't be so-" Sel replied, then suddenly stopped. "Colonel Cade!" She saluted, trying to look as military-like as possible while wearing a sleeveless shirt and being covered in dirt. It didn't quite work.

Rachel casually shook her head. "No need for that now, Captain. You can give me the full report later."

"If I may ask, colonel, what's going on below?" Sel began.

"A few people, like myself, are investigating the situation up here. If it's safe, which you people seem to have proved, we're going to open up the city and let the people out to up here." She explained. "It's pretty obvious that we can't stay locked up down below with no heat, light or power."

"We, uh, lost the core." Sel began. "We had to destroy it in order to stop it form being used."

Cade nodded. "I expected as much." She looked around. "We will have to make a lot of changes in the years to come." She turned to Sandra. "You're Sandra Blackmore, right?"

Sandra nodded. "Yep." she casually replied.

"Rachel Cade. Sel's commanding officer." She began. "I've heard a lot about you and your men."

"Its all lies, really." Sandra replied. "We're nowhere near that good."

"I wanted to thank you for all you've done for us." Rachel continued. "And I have a favor to ask of you."

"Go on." Sandra began

"We'll need to know a lot more about the outside world." Rachel began. "I'll admit that a lot of our information is rather second hand at the best of times. Your people, on the other hand, have lived there all your lives. We'd like to know more. If you could help us..."

Sandra looked around, taking in the ruined city, the pile of wrecked Zoids and the various people on field. She particularly noted Vic who, seemed to be having a good time without anyone getting hurt in the process. "Sure." She said. "We never got paid for any of this anyway. I'd like to think I can get something out of saving the world."

We stayed with the Zemalyans for another month, helping fill them in on the outside world and all that they'd been missing for the last century. In turn, they filled us in on their history, on how they had come to Zi centuries after everyone else and had concealed their origins to the point where not even they were sure where they had come from anymore.

After that, we returned to our homes in the Wastelands. We said our good-byes to each other, each going back to their normal, day-to-day lives. But deep within us, I think we realised that things would never quite be the same. We'd all changed and grown in a way. Running around in the desert shooting each other seemed to loose a bit of its appeal to many of us.

Bekka was given special permission to leave the Zemalyan military and their city. She literally turned up on our doorstep one day, a new Heldigunner with her. She and I married a year later, and chose to remain in the house in Bed Springs while everyone else moved on. Our first child, Sean, was born six months ago. I gave up the mercenary work for a while, and turned back to writing. Bekka's been helping me out as I go, serving as an editor of sorts and helping me keep the facts straight.

I'd like to say that Sandra and Tsuneo reconciled their differences and got back together, but that's not what happened. Instead, to everyone's surprise, she met and fell in love with a computer programmer, who she helped out while he was lost in the desert and being chased by Red Mutants at the time. They moved back to the UZN, Sandra having decided that they'd both had enough of the desert for a while. She refuses to admit it, but Spud has become thoroughly domesticated and, more to the point, likes it.

Vic, or more to the point, Victoria was different. Whatever had happened to her had changed her dramatically. Gone was the somewhat crazed, unbalanced personality that seemed to get her laughs out of causing mental distress in others. Instead we found a young, naive, somewhat confused girl who was surprisingly polite and friendly. She left us at the same time as Sandra, having apparently decided to travel to find out more about herself and what she'd been missing or the last few years. We see each other on occasion, probably not as much as we should. I'm happy that she seems to have found herself, but I also miss her in a way.

As Cade predicted, Novo Zemalya opened itself up to the outside world. Her first act on becoming their new supreme commander was to send out diplomatic feelers to the UZN and Drakken Empire. This lead to her revealing their presence and establishing formal diplomatic relationships with both states.

Sel and Rose were appointed as the first Zemalyan ambassadors to the UZN and Empire respectively. They were chose not so much for their diplomatic skills, but more for the fact that they had more experience with the outside world then most anyone else in the city. Matt was added onto Sel's staff at her own request, the two being not so much married as now a couple. (Bekka has tried to explain it to me. The best I can say is that I probably should study their customs, especially with regard to the family). Their first child, a boy, was born only a month ago.

Rose surprised us all by apparently falling in love with an Imperial army officer she met while on ambassadorial duty. She's also further surprised us by writing a novel in her spare time. (Most everyone was unaware hat she had any literary ambitions or talents). Titled Steelgrave, its a 'historical fantasy' book about the life of a Starrior Warlord in ancient times. She and I are cooperating on a graphic novel adaptation.

Bob and Alex were both heavily promoted as a result of tier actions. Bob has gotten command of Sel's old unit, while Alex has taken over Rose's. Both of them seem to have a contest going to see who's unit can out do the other's. In heir spare time, they've formed an inpro stand-up comedy act on the Zemalyan underground alternative circuit. No, I don't get it either, but they're supposed to be hilarious. Alex's master plan is to sell the movie rights to his life story and have someone 'a lot better looking' play himself in the lead role. I'm going to assume he was joking.

Anna, Felix and Stuart stayed together as a team, later joined by Reven and Z-One. (Who had taken a year off to do Tomy-alone knows what. What do a potential Darth and a masked minion do with their time anyway?) Of late, however, Anna's been speaking out a lot about unity amongst the Wastelands populace and trying to form something resembling a unified state. While people around here are somewhat resistant to change, Anna has a way of making people listen to her.

Even though he's given up on getting vengeance, Pants hasn't given up on being a Darth. Every now and then he wheels out his latest 'ultimate creation' to show off to the world. Then he and I have a friendly battle, and he goes off to build a new ultimate creation. Now that he's over the vengeance thing, Pants has mellowed to a pretty nice guy.

John Shepherd and Taro Watanabe vanished after the battle, and haven't been seen since. Rumour has it that they have formed a new secret organization of their own, but nobody knows for sure. Certainly there's been no sign of A-X since then, which isn't surprising given that their leader was captured by De Lyon and hasn't been seen since, and their forces were destroyed in the battle.

Things have definitely begun to change. Bed Springs is a lot busier these days, but at the same time it's become a nicer place. With prosperity has come a feeling of identity. People are no longer content to live in a junk heap and have begun to clean up the town after a fashion. There's a lot less decrepit buildings, a lot less junk in the street and a lot more green around town. Sandra says we're becoming 'yuppified'.

A lot has changed in the past few years. Looking back on it, those first few times I spent squatting behind sand dunes while Vic took pot-shots at passing bandits and Sandra swore at them, it makes me wonder how we got here. It's been a very strange and enjoyable journey. I'm just glad I could share it with you.

Rick R. Mortis

(Authour's end notes to Wandering Desert Loonies trade paperback, second printing)

Closing: "Rise on Shooting Star" - The Pillows (Covered by Ebonflak and the Original Godkaisers)


End file.
